EnergyPoliticsCommentary

A Sneaky Effort to Undermine the Fight Against Carbon Taxes

EXCLUSIVE: Americans for Prosperity Action Endorses Husted

EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers to Probe Whether Free Education Incentivizes Illegal Immigration

Energy Secretary Says Trump Admin Has Trick Up Its Sleeve to Ease Oil Price Rise

EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers to Probe Whether Free Education Incentivizes Illegal Immigration

‘Largest Deportation in History’? Why the GOP Is Divided Over This Immigration Question

What to Know About Judge Who Blocked Trump Immigration Court Reform

Poll Reveals Popularity of Trump’s Iran Performance

  PoliticsSecurityNews

Weaponized Immigration Methods Aimed at America

Why Chinese Communist Media Is Touting the US Constitution

China Receiving ‘Mixed Signals’ on US Operation in Iran

Not Just the Ayatollah—How Operation Epic Fury Is Remaking Geopolitics

EXCLUSIVE: Americans for Prosperity Action Endorses Husted

EXCLUSIVE: Lawmakers to Probe Whether Free Education Incentivizes Illegal Immigration

‘Why Would You Wanna Punish All These Workers?’: Sen. Fetterman Slams Fellow Dems Over HHS Shutdown

 EducationPoliticsNews

EXCLUSIVE: Bill to Dismantle Taxpayer-Funded Democrat ‘Talent Pipeline’ Expected to Pass House Committee

What’s on Voters’ Minds? Polls Suggest These 3 Issues

Senate Passes Bipartisan Housing Package as SAVE Act Pressure Builds

Why the Real Fight Over Virginia’s Partisan Map to Reshape Congress May Come After Referendum

DOJ Review of Voter Rolls Uncovers Alarming Names—and It’s Only the Beginning

Netanyahu Refutes Death Rumor With Coffee Run

Hegseth: Iran’s Leader ‘Wounded and Likely Disfigured’

Does Iran Still Have a War Strategy?

Iran Indicates Khamenei’s Hardline Son Will Be Next Supreme Leader

Beyond the Oyster Fork: An Etiquette Expert’s Tips for ‘Relationships, Work, and Life’

Is the Iran Operation ‘America First’?

 International Commentary

Russia Operating ‘Systematic Child Abduction Operation,’ EU Ambassador Says

Meet the People Fueling Chaos in Minneapolis, New York, and Beyond 

While Some Allies Hesitate, Israel Is Already in the Fight Against Iran

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Kristi Noem Failed at DHS

Victor Davis Hanson: Newsom’s Rocky Month Shows the Risks of Running on Style Over Substance

Victor Davis Hanson: Trump Laid Out America’s Comeback While Democrats Sat Silent

EnergyPoliticsCommentary

A Sneaky Effort to Undermine the Fight Against Carbon Taxes

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N. D., in Washington on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Daren Bakst / @darenbakst

Daren Bakst is the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

President Donald Trump has shown bold leadership by rejecting the radical global climate agenda. But now some lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans, have set out on a path that, if followed, will undermine the president’s accomplishments.

Those accomplishments have been substantial. The president has withdrawn the U.S. from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and helped dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act’s Green New Deal subsidies. Also, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under his watch rescinded the endangerment finding that made it possible for the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Trump administration has also made it clear that any nation supporting the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization’s global carbon tax on shipping will face severe penalties. In a press release, the administration didn’t mince words, stating, “The United States will be moving to levy these remedies against nations that sponsor this European-led neocolonial export of global climate regulations.”Congress shouldn’t undercut these successes, but that’s exactly what has happened. Buried within a House report that accompanied the enacted energy and water development spending bill is language that enables the radical global climate agenda.The language directs the Department of Energy to study the carbon intensity of domestic and foreign goods. The goods must include all items subject to the European Union’s (EU) carbon border tax, which the EU calls a carbon border adjustment mechanism. While technically not law, agencies tend to comply with such report language. This language would help establish the framework necessary for the U.S. to impose our own carbon border tax and eventually even a domestic carbon tax.Last Congress, this type of measuring scheme was introduced in legislation called the PROVE IT Act. Conservatives joined together in huge numbers to fight and eventually kill off this legislation. After proponents of the PROVE IT Act didn’t get what they wanted in a transparent, straightforward manner, they sneakily included language in a report that most lawmakers likely didn’t even know existed. Senator Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., has stated the report language was his “legislation” and bragged how he kept the report language a secret for a long time and, reportedly, never mentioned it to the White House or Department of Energy. But undermining the Trump administration’s fight against the global climate agenda in an underhanded way shouldn’t be a bragging point. We should be fighting the EU and carbon border taxes, not caving to EU political pressure. 

The arguments for a carbon intensity measuring scheme seem to be constantly changing. One recent claim is that measuring the carbon intensity of goods would help ensure EU numbers are accurate. Why don’t we instead just ensure Americans are not taxed by the EU in the first place? Cramer claims that his carbon measuring scheme would fit into Trump’s America First trade doctrine. But in fact it puts the EU and the global climate agenda first.The Trump administration made it clear the U.S. wouldn’t tolerate a global carbon tax when it comes to the shipping industry. So, we certainly shouldn’t tolerate Europe’s arguably more egregious carbon tax on the global community.For anyone supposing data collection is no big deal, consider that information collected through the EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting program was just used by Democrats through passage of the Inflation Reduction Act to create a methane tax. This new measuring scheme would inevitably be abused in the same manner. It should also be noted that many proponents of the PROVE IT Act have not been shy in admitting that such a scheme would lead to carbon taxes of some kind. Senator Cramer has argued in the past that the U.S. should work in collaboration with the EU on a carbon border tax.  President Trump and many other conservative leaders have been fighting the Green New Deal and global climate efforts to ban or regulate reliable energy sources out of existence. They understand that we need affordable and reliable energy. Yet this report language would start a process that offsets the good already done to reject the global climate agenda. After all, it doesn’t help if the Department of Energy is being required to lay the foundation for carbon taxes.To the extent possible, the Department of Energy should avoid setting up the framework necessary for carbon taxes. Practically, any legitimate and workable measuring scheme may be impossible to create anyway. Further, Congress should remedy this problem, such as by prohibiting funds in the next energy spending bill from being used to finalize such a study.

Our country is finally pushing back against climate extremism, in large part due to President Trump. Congress needs to make sure that these efforts are not in vain.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

MONUMENTAL: Trump Admin Unleashes American Energy With Key Regulatory Move

Ignore Democrat Lies; Birth Certificates Are Easy to Attain

Dire Straits for Midterms? Gas Price Surge Troubles Senators

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

The Tony Kinnett Cast

The Daily Signal Podcast

© 2025 The Daily Signal Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

We use cookies on our website. By using our website, you consent to cookies.  Learn More .  

© The Daily Signal