Though the housing and real estate industries oppose the plan, a key House committee leader’s proposed “carbon tax” cutbacks on mortgage interest deductions are attracting strong support from environmental and scientific groups.Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wants to phase out mortgage interest write-offs for houses larger than 3,000 square feet, using a graduated scale that ends at no deductions for properties with 4,200 square feet or more.

Although he says he recognizes that newly constructed houses may be more energy efficient than older ones, their “sheer size, sprawl and commutes lead to dramatically more energy use - or to put it more simply, a larger carbon footprint.”

Manuel Juarez stood in the middle of his patch of green lawn and gestured at the dead, brown yards of the empty tract homes in all directions.

“There are no people in that house there,” he said, pointing at a large stucco home with a for-sale sign next door to his right. Then he pointed at two nearly identical houses for sale across the street, then to the one on his left and finally to the house directly behind his. “There are no people there, there or there either,” the 51-year-old appliance repairman said in his native Spanish.