California’s Senate has passed a Carbon Labeling Act that will introduce a standardized label establishing a methodology for determining the carbon footprint of every consumer product — that is, the total amount of carbon that went into producing that Twinkie you’re holding. The labels will be voluntary (for now).

Carbon labels are modeled on federal nutrition labels, the federal Energy Star program, and efforts abroad like Britain’s Carbon Label for apparel and food (see example below) and are meant to address the overblown global-warming menace that the bill says “poses a serious threat to the economic well-being, public health, natural resources, and the environment of California.”

“When nutrition labels started letting consumers know about the trans fat in their food, they responded by buying healthier products,” says bill sponsor and Cal Assemblyman Ira Ruskin. “Consumers don’t want trans fat, and they don’t want global warming.” But apparently they do want nanny bureaucrats telling them what they should buy.

The initiative follows last year’s carbon labels on cars as the Nanny State works towards Nancy Pelosi’s goal that “every aspect of our lives must be subject to inventory.”