Señor Codo's flickr photostream/Creative Commons

Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland quietly introduced a climate bill into the House last week, a small 20-pager, especially when compared to the 648-page climate bill that had been introduced into Congress the day before. The title of the act is The Cap and Dividend Act of 2009, and is really quite elegant in its simplicity and rationality.

For starters, when it comes to auctioning off carbon credits to polluting industries, Van Hollen wants the credits to be distributed 100% by auction - no free credits to start with, which is a demand of industry. Basically, if you’re gonna pollute, you’re gonna pay for it. But, perhaps even more awesomely, Van Hollen also wants 100% of the money raised to be returned to the taxpayers.

He also wants to return 100% of the auction revenues equally to every American resident with a social security number. That’s the “dividend” in the bill’s title – also sometimes referred to as “cash back” or “rebate.” [SolveClimate.com]

This bill is somewhat similar to a plan President Obama recommends, in that he wants a 100% auction, but the tax rebate on that is different in structure, and is not 100% inclusive. Now, of course, based on how the legislative branch works, there’s very little chance of this bill getting out unscathed. As a refresher:

But, it’s awesome that someone in Congress is like, “Hey, how about we make companies pay to pollute, and then give that money to Americans that are affected by it?” It’s brilliant. takepart and keep up in the fight against climate change.