Pass the PROVE IT Act to show America’s excellence outperforms foreign competition

OPINION:

American manufacturers are among the best in the world, but competition from cheap goods from overseas is undercutting our workers and shuttering our factories. In some industrial sectors, like steel, aluminum, and glass, our factories are among the cleanest globally. Our competitors often have the advantage of lower environmental standards, so their cheaper, dirtier products can outcompete our cleaner American-made ones. Our bipartisan PROVE IT Act (Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity and Transparency Act) would demonstrate our advantage in clean production and make clear to consumers around the world the environmental damage caused by some emissions-intensive foreign products.

Over the last fifty years, Americans watched as countless manufacturers across the country closed their doors. We have seen the high-paying, high-quality jobs that are the backbone of the middle class move overseas, leaving families and whole communities high and dry. Lax environmental standards in distant lands allowed the creation of junk products at the expense of the environment and our workers. We do it better here at home, and our public policy should shift to put the value of the American worker first, and shore up our more secure supply chains by sourcing from the U.S.

Ultimately, American jobs and energy security are worth protecting, but our environmental stewardship only bolsters our value proposition. Energy production in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation and advanced manufacturing in Delaware may seem unrelated, but if the goal is cleaner production and lower emissions, the solution is making it in America. Part of the problem is while we know our goods are cleaner and safer, we’ve never actually produced the official data to demonstrate it. Together, we introduced the PROVE IT Act in June to finally put the numbers behind what we believe to be true: our environmental stewardship is the best in the world.

Data compiled by the Climate Leadership Council shows the United States is the cleanest manufacturing nation: “Goods manufactured in the U.S. are 40% more carbon-efficient than the world average. The U.S. carbon advantage is 3X that of China and nearly 4X that of Russia and India.” Defending our strategic interests starts with quantifying our advantage. We already collect data on many topics, so why should data on our domestic emissions and our competitors’ emissions be any different? Our environmental excellence should be on full display for comparison to the world’s polluters and their poor performance.

With the impending implementation of the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), trade and emissions are more intertwined than ever. Beginning this year, the EU will require the disclosure of the carbon dioxide content of certain exports, and in just a few years, the EU will enforce a tariff on those carbon-intensive goods entering the EU. If we’re going to continue to export competitively to one of our largest trading partners, we need to do our own math instead of relying on numbers from other countries which could result in unjust tariffs being slapped on U.S. goods.

The PROVE IT Act is a bipartisan, commonsense effort to bridge the gap between what we know and what we can prove. Our public policy should be focused on protecting and rewarding American workers for their contributions to our economic, environmental, and national security strengths. Instead of being on the defensive, this bill is a proactive effort to keep American excellence at the head of the global table. Together, we are working across the aisle to defend America’s economic interests, create an environment for future bipartisanship, and drive global emissions reductions.

• Kevin Cramer, North Dakota Republican, is the Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure. He also serves on the Senate Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Banking Committees. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, sits on the Appropriations, Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Ethics Committees. He serves as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.