Mahkol

It's a show of force and warning.

raver9876

Hey you, poor third world person living on $4 a day, you burned something and produced CO2, pay up...

Eualos

It's profitable

VoutGuy

The house always wins.

xolotltlaloc

this. bottom line.

also, 3rd world countries are about to leapfrog oil-based economies (solar, thorium, zeropoint, etc.), so this is an effort to force the "developed economies" to upgrade -- or die.