First State Times

WASHINGTON — In case you missed it, Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) introduced the bipartisan Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency (PROVE IT) Act this week, legislation to direct the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct a comprehensive study comparing the emissions intensity of certain goods produced in the United States to the emissions of those same goods produced in other countries. U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) also joined as co-sponsors. 

See coverage of the introduction below: 

WATCH: Senator Coons discusses the PROVE IT act with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour

“That’s part of the beauty of an approach that says, ‘if you want to access the American market, you have to prove that you have low-emissions heavy industrial products.’ The thing that is most likely to bend the curve of emissions in China and India is market forces through trade. … Let’s just imagine for a moment, if the EU, U.K., U.S., Canada, South Korea, and Australia [are] all aligned around low-emissions approaches to how we manufacture steel, aluminum, glass, and cement — heavy industrial products. To access our markets, China and India would have to demonstrate, and Russia, that they are reducing their industrial emissions. That will drive them to change their emissions profiles and to slow down the rate at which they’re currently building a record number of coal-fired power plants.”

The Washington Post: “In a rare example of a bipartisan climate policy, momentum is growing on Capitol Hill for a plan to tax imports from China and other countries with looser environmental standards.” 

Senators Coons and Cramer op-ed in The Hill: “Working together with partner nations, we can reduce our reliance on those countries that not only inflame geopolitical tensions but dump dirty products onto the global market. We can also level the playing field for American manufacturers by giving them credit for the cleaner production standards they abide by. First, though, we need data.” 

   

Washington Post Columnist Catherine Rampell: “An unassuming but remarkable piece of legislation was introduced in the Senate this week: a bipartisan carbon emissions bill. The bill, introduced by Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and co-sponsored by seven other senators, would require the U.S. government to start calculating the emissions intensity of industrial materials made in the United States and some other countries around the world.”

The Dispatch: “‘It’s heartening that policymakers realize that we can’t rely on country industry-level emissions anymore,’ Shuting Pomerleau, a research manager at the Niskanen Center, tells The Dispatch. ‘We need to get down to the product level if we want to address climate and trade across borders.’”

E&E News: “Senators from both parties have signed on to legislation that would calculate the emissions intensity of industrial materials produced in the United States.

“It’s a necessary step, advocates say, toward a carbon border adjustment mechanism, or CBAM, that would slap tariffs on carbon-intensive imports.

“‘We need our own math,’ said George David Banks, a conservative climate adviser and former climate official in the Trump administration. ‘The Europeans are moving forward with their own CBAM … and [they] will come up with our own math for us.’”

Original source can be found here.