Green Party position on carbon taxes and emissions trading

Just spent some time reviewing the Green Party website. The most relevant public documents are their fall 2006 Green Plan and 2006 policy platform. The two documents make some commitments re emissions trading:

1. increasing emissions targets for large industrial emitters to achieve at least 55 Mt CO2e of reductions above and beyond any other measures.
2. setting absolute targets ("cap and trade") instead of using emissions intensity targets
3. "expanding the proposed...system so that it will ensure real emissions reductions across sectors"
4. using revenue from permit sales to offset tax breaks that would be provided for energy efficiency and other reductions initiatives.

The Green Plan also commits the party to implementing a revenue-neutral carbon tax, but doesn't talk about the size of the tax or the emissions reductions targets they hope to achieve with it. They do say that by using an emission cap and trade permit system, they will "avoid having to set the carbon tax so high as to be economically dislocating" (from the Green Plan).

Link to Greens' 2006 policy platform
Link to Greens' September 2006 Green Plan
Link to Green Party news release advocating a revenue-neutral carbon tax

My comments:

As mentioned before, I am definitely happy to see anyone advocate absolute limits over emissions intensity targets. Their 55 Mt CO2e target doesn't seem particularly demanding, since that is actually what the Liberal's Large Final Emitters program was aiming for already. Re a revenue-neutral carbon tax, it makes sense as an idea to me, especially with the necessary compensation for lower income families, but I'd like to see a more detailed proposal. I'm also going to look into more economic research on carbon taxes - my understanding is still that environmental economists are for the idea, but I've heard reference to some convincing evidence from existing schemes elsewhere that carbon taxes inevitably get diluted by politicians' fear of unpopular taxation.