ENROLLED
2023 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 39
BY REPRESENTATIVE MIGUEZ
A RESOLUTION
To memorialize the United States Congress to take such actions as are necessary to enact a
trade policy that supports United States businesses and workers while penalizing
global polluters.
WHEREAS, Chinese government owned industry is an arm of the communist party
and strives to increase its influence over the global economy by pursuing predatory, unfair
trade practices designed to steal intellectual property and destroy competition from the
United States; and
WHEREAS, China's dominance of key components of the global supply chain,
including those related to critical minerals, represents a threat to United States economic
security and economic and social development; and
WHEREAS, China, by far the world's largest polluter, accounts for approximately
thirty percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and subsidizes its exports by not
imposing or enforcing reasonable environmental and labor standards; and
WHEREAS, the United States has eliminated more carbon emissions than any other
country in the last fifteen years, and its economy is forty-four percent more carbon efficient
than the world average; and
WHEREAS, United States' manufacturers are more efficient in nearly every industry
from steel to solar panels to automobiles and yet are forced to compete with companies in
China and elsewhere that face few limits on how much they pollute; and
WHEREAS, goods produced in China, on average, generate three times the CO2
emissions of equivalent goods made in the United States, and goods produced in Russia emit
four times the emissions; and
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WHEREAS, minerals mined in China are more than twice as carbon intensive as
those mined in the United States, the average carbon intensity of Russian oil is at least thirty-
three percent higher than United States oil, and Russian natural gas is sixty percent more
greenhouse gas intensive than United States natural gas; and
WHEREAS, many rural Americans are being left behind economically, suffering
from severe poverty, poor health care, and few economic opportunities, making them
increasingly vulnerable to crime and the opioid crisis; and
WHEREAS, the average per capita income for rural Americans is only forty-six
thousand dollars, compared to roughly sixty thousand dollars for all Americans, and the
poverty rate in rural America is fourteen point four percent, compared with eleven point nine
percent nationwide; and
WHEREAS, United States rural communities have lower wages, property taxes, and
land prices, which should give them a competitive advantage in attracting investments in
manufacturing that provide revenue streams that help fund local schools and infrastructure;
and
WHEREAS, manufacturing jobs play a more important role in the rural economy
than in urban areas, accounting for a greater share of jobs and earnings; and
WHEREAS, United States' trade policy, which has given foreign polluters an unfair
advantage over the past two decades, has encouraged economic restructuring across rural
America that has resulted in manufacturing employment falling by close to thirty percent;
and
WHEREAS, China has been the major beneficiary of this poorly designed federal
trade policy, with the United States losing roughly five million jobs in the last twenty years,
and half of those losses are the result of the United States trade deficit with China; and
WHEREAS, rewarding United States firms for their environmental performance
would bolster domestic manufacturing and generate good paying jobs, particularly in rural
areas, and reduce dependence on imports from high emitting producers like Russia and
China.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby memorialize the United States Congress to take such
actions as are necessary to enact a trade policy that holds highpolluting countries like China
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and Russia accountable for their pollution and promotes American economic development
and the rebuilding of United States supply chains, particularly in rural communities, by
rewarding American businesses and workers for their superior environmental performance
while penalizing global polluters.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the
United States and to each member of the Louisiana congressional delegation.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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