So much for the plastic bag tax

Via Green Sheet, Seattle voters appear to have rejected its plastic bag tax:

Seattle voters have rejected a 20-cent fee for every paper or plastic bag they get from supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores... With about half the ballots counted in the all-mail vote, the bag fee was failing 58 percent to 42 percent in Tuesday's primary.

The sad thing is:

Observers predicted that [with] a failure for the bag fee in an eco-conscious city like Seattle, such proposals would be an even tougher sell elsewhere.

This illustrates a broader frustration for environmental movements in general - nothing changes behaviors like price signals, but when it comes down to taxes on negative environmental externalities, consumer often vote down even the smallest increase.

Given that, a higher explicit gas tax seems highly unlikely to be passed in the U.S., despite low taxes rates by international standards and many great economic arguments for it. Which is one reason to root for the undercover gas tax better known as the Waxman-Markey bill...