California Restaurants Charging 1% Global Warming Tax

An initiative among restaurants in California will charge customers a one percent tax to combat global warming.

The Restore California Renewable Restaurants movement will attempt to force customers to pay a little extra to grow a public fund that will supposedly be used to reduce carbon emissions. The fund will reportedly pay farmers $10 per ton of carbon emissions they eliminate from their operations, according to the Hill.

These first measures would have restaurants automatically putting the one percent tax onto everyone’s bill but will also allow restaurants to remove the tax if customers complain that they do not want to pay it.

“There’s always going to be the people who say, why is this on the bill? I don’t want to pay it. I don’t care what it’s for. I don’t want to pay it,” said Christopher Barnum-Dann, the owner of Localis restaurant, according to Sacramento’s CBS affiliate.

“We’re not asking our fixed-income people to pay that on their property tax. We’re asking that of someone who had made a choice to go out and spend money,” resident Sacramento John Peters told CBS.

“Organizers say 1% might not sound like a lot, but if enough restaurants sign-up, it would add up quickly,” CBS added.

“There’s 78,000 restaurants in California, so if half of them join on that’s almost 40,000, so that’s a decent chunk of money,” Barnum-Dann said.

Anthony Myint, one of the organizers of the effort, hopes that every restaurant will join the movement. “It’s an exciting and enthusiastic approach to climate change,” Myint said. “You’re contributing with things that you like,” he told the Hill.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.