An article in the New York Times (Dec 29, 2011) describes a Federal judge’s decision to block the state of California from computing the life cycle impact of greenhouse gas emissions by furl producers. The plan was to include the carbon impact of production and transportation of fuel to California but was deemed to discriminate against producers from other states choice of farming methods or choice of electricity source by attempting to regulate activity in other states.  How should individual states use a life cycle analysis of carbon emissions if they do not have jurisdiction beyond their boundaries ? How should green labels be placed on products by manufacturers in the absence of a Federal mandate ? Given the complexity of modern global supply chains, how should supply chain participants be incented to decrease carbon impact ?