Today, ten Democratic senators sent President Obama a letter demanding a “level playing field” for U.S. manufacturing in any climate plan. In plain English: If you want your climate bill, you better include “carbon tariffs” to make sure U.S. jobs don’t scurry off to unregulated China.One hopes this can be negotiated around - signed climate legislation enshrining carbon protectionism into law would be a scary thing.
The list of senators includes some heavyweights, but all are swing votes for the bill—Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin of Michigan; Robert Byrd of West Virginia; Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania; Evan Bayh of Indiana; and Al Franken of Minnesota. Without the support of these lawmakers, you can stick a fork in the climate bill—it’s done.
... The ten senators take the opposite approach: “By eliminating the competitive benefit of not acting to address this global problem, it should spur countries to reach a comprehensive accord.”
Carbon tariffs reach the Senate
After the House set a poor example, I was hoping the Senate would take a more mature view on carbon tariffs and steer clear of protectionism, despite the temptation. Sadly not:
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