Senators eye carbon border tax to combat climate change, counter China

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In today's edition, we’ll cover the House's stalled votes on two Republican bills that would block regulations on gas stoves. But first:

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.

Today, Sens. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) will introduce a bill that would lay the groundwork for America's first carbon border tax, according to legislative text shared first with The Washington Post. The senators’ goal is to impose fees on iron, steel and other imports from China and other countries that are not significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The bipartisan bill, dubbed the Prove It Act, would take a first step toward this goal. It would require the Energy Department to study the emissions intensity of certain products — including aluminum, cement, crude oil, fertilizer, iron, steel and plastic — produced in the United States as well as its allies and adversaries.

"Using trade to advance American manufacturing — and to disadvantage dirty or high-emissions products — is ultimately the only way we’re going to put effective pressure on China, Russia and India to dramatically reduce their emissions," Coons said in an interview Tuesday.

Cramer said Republicans are increasingly interested in a carbon border tax as a way to counter China and protect U.S. businesses.

"China's sort of an easy target," Cramer said. "They are the ones producing cheap stuff. But there are other players besides China that are dirty producers taking advantage of our system."

Co-sponsors of the new bill include two other Republicans — Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — as well as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Angus King (I-Maine).

The measure comes after the European Union in April approved the world's first tax on carbon-intensive imports. The decision will require importers to start paying the tax in 2026, although they will have to start accounting for the carbon emissions associated with their products in October.

The bill also comes after Democrats last year enacted the most ambitious climate bill in U.S. history. While no Republicans voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, conservatives have increasingly embraced the idea of taxing imports from foreign adversaries — an idea that meshes with former president Donald Trump's aggressive trade policy that wielded tariffs as weapons.

"I think that Trump really had an impact on trade policy and the growing recognition that China is a major security threat to the United States," said George David Banks, who served as a White House climate adviser under Trump. "It's clearly driving this conversation within GOP circles."

For Democrats, the conversation began in earnest after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which did not include a carbon border tax.

The bill did, however, include green subsidies that alarmed European officials, who worried that companies could shift investments out of Europe and into North America to secure the tax breaks.

Coons said his "larger objective over the next few years" is to calm these transatlantic tensions by creating a "carbon club" — a group of allied countries that have all adopted ambitious climate laws. Such a club could include the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

While Republicans have warmed to the idea of carbon border tariffs, they remain resistant to a domestic carbon tax, saying it would harm the U.S. fossil fuel industry.

"Republicans are largely pretty cool to the idea of a carbon tax, and I am in that camp, coming from a coal- and oil- and gas-producing state," Cramer said.

"We spend so much time as Republicans saying hell no to people who want to tax carbon or want to somehow decarbonize," he added. "But the whole ‘America First’ movement and agenda is a comfortable place for Republicans. So this is the low-hanging fruit of climate policy or trade policy or whatever you want to call it."

You can read our full story about the growing momentum for a carbon border tax here.

In a surprise rebuke for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), hard-right Republicans sunk a procedural vote yesterday that would have allowed the chamber to consider two bills to block gas stove regulations this week, The Washington Post's Marianna Sotomayor, Amy B Wang and Paul Kane report.

Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats against the rule for consideration of several bills, citing anger over how McCarthy handled the negotiations to raise the debt ceiling last week. The rule fell short on a 206-220 vote — the first rule vote to fail since November 2002.

One of the bills would prevent the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves or implementing regulations that "substantially" increase their cost. Another would block the Energy Department from finalizing a proposed efficiency rule for gas and electric stoves.

Republicans have been rallying behind gas stoves as a point of resistance to the Biden administration's climate agenda for months since CPSC Commissioner Richard L. Trumka Jr. offhandedly said that he had not ruled out a ban on the appliances.

Regulators have since clarified that the government has no plans to ban gas stoves, but rather is looking at ways to cut emissions from the appliances and protect public health. Congress routinely directs agencies to create new appliance efficiency rules to reduce consumer utility bills.

The bills to block gas stove standards would probably be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The White House also said yesterday that President Biden would veto the bills if they reached his desk.

Officials and experts said the destruction of a major dam and hydroelectric power plant on the front lines of the war in Ukraine may dry up the rich agriculture of southern Ukraine, sweep pollutants into waterways and upend ecosystems that had developed around the massive reservoir, The Post's Michael Birnbaum and Evan Halper report.

Water from the Kakhovka dam, which is rapidly flooding areas downstream, will force entire towns to relocate while also severely damaging cherished environmental sites such as the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve, which is home to wild horses and protected snakes and falcons.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said at least 150 tons of oil stored at the facility washed into the waterway. Without the reservoir, much of southern Ukraine will lack water for drinking and cooking, and the nation's significant farming industry will probably be depleted.

"You have lots of different debris that will flow into the flooding, including from all the factories and workshops that are producing and using chemicals and different toxic things," said Mohammad Heidarzadeh, an assistant professor of architecture and civil engineering at the University of Bath.

The Justice Department yesterday dropped a 10-month investigation into allegations that Houston leaders failed to adequately address illegal dumping of waste in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, declaring confidence in a new remediation plan from local leaders, The Post's David Nakamura reports.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the department will monitor the One Clean Houston plan, which was enacted in March, for three years. The plan aims to increase fines for violators, boost funding for bulk waste removal, and improve reporting of dumping violations.

The initial investigation was prompted by a 65-page complaint that alleged the city had denied services and failed to enforce municipal codes in some minority neighborhoods. At the time, community members voiced long-standing concerns over the dumping of furniture, tires, medical waste, ATMs, dead animals and even human bodies.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) said the new plan has already reduced the city government's response time to reports of illegal dumping to 11 days from 49 days last year, fined 210 violators, and helped remove 20,000 tons of debris.

Since his appointment last year, Attorney General Merrick Garland has sought to prioritize environmental justice, announcing the creation last year of a Justice Department office to help coordinate the federal government's legal strategy.

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