Time to Hold China Accountable on Pollution

Florida has always been an environmentally sensitive state, and our leaders have worked hard to take steps to protect our water and quality of life in the long-term. 

In the same way, the country has been obsessed over the past couple of decades with making our nation as clean as possible with outlined goals for massive reductions in carbon emissions.  While all regulation needs to be reasonable for America’s working families, it also needs to be fair, and there is great risk for Florida and the United States if we apply aggressive regulations and goals to ourselves that are not evenly applied to major economic competitors like China.  

The US has been a leader in cutting emissions for years now, but China is by far the largest polluter in the entire world, contributing more to carbon pollution than the rest of the developed world combined.  For instance, China constructed six times more coal plant projects than the rest of the globe in 2022.  Allowing this kind of disparity in self-policing environmental policy creates a trade imbalance and a further national security imbalance.

US industry is not only 3x more carbon-efficient than our world competitors, it’s also 40% cleaner than the world average. But we currently allow foreign entities like China to undercut our producers by letting their manufacturers take advantage of low environmental standards without consequence. 

Toothless, non-binding international agreements won’t work.  That’s why it’s my view that we must work to put tangible pressure on China and others to bring their regulatory action in line with our own.   Some have a proposed applying a foreign pollution fee to countries like China, and that is a concept that appears to be gaining attention across the country including in the US Senate.  This trade approach would charge a fee on imports produced under low environmental standards and even-out the disparity between America and the rest of the world.  

For China, this would mean their producers would no longer be able to flood markets with cheap exports produced under little to no environmental standards. In holding foreign polluters accountable, the US would also reap significant economic benefit by levelling the playing field for relatively clean American manufacturers and thus boosting their competitiveness internationally. Furthermore, a foreign pollution fee would monetize the significant clean industry advantage America already has and finally reward American producers for doing their production in the right way. 

Floridians could be the tip of the spear in helping to address this issue.  Governor DeSantis and the state legislature have already moved to protect Florida from international foes in the realm of cyberspace, real estate, and academia. With rising Chinese aggression, we shouldn’t leave any tool unused, including holding China and other countries with similar irresponsible regulatory policies accountable for their pollution.

Our Congressional delegation is powerful and significant, and we can take action to help take leadership on this issue. A strategy like this would put America business first, seize on a clear advantage that we already have with clean industrial standards, and help steward the environment.