It is not difficult to understand the appeal of a carbon tax. It’s an elegant, straight-forward solution to the climate change crisis. The only problem with it is that it is politically infeasible in the United States and most other places on earth. Last week, we saw the carbon tax once again go down to defeat. Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee, a strong supporter of the carbon tax, was unable to move it through his state legislature, even though that body is controlled by the same Democratic Party he leads. In reporting on this development, Coral Davenport of the New York Times observed that: