SLS 23RS-872 ORIGINAL
2023 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 53
BY SENATOR KLEINPETER
CONGRESS. Memorializes Congress to enact a trade policy that supports United States
businesses and workers while penalizing global polluters.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To memorialize Congress to enact a trade policy that supports United States businesses and
3 workers while penalizing global polluters.
4 WHEREAS, Chinese government-owned industry is an arm of the communist party
5 and strives to increase its influence over the global economy by pursuing predatory, unfair
6 trade practices designed to steal intellectual property and destroy competition from the
7 United States; and
8 WHEREAS, China's dominance of key components of the global supply chain,
9 including those related to critical minerals, represents a threat to United States economic
10 security and economic and social development; and
11 WHEREAS, China, by far the world's largest polluter, accounts for approximately
12 thirty percent of global carbon dioxide (CO
2) emissions and subsidizes its exports by not
13 imposing or enforcing reasonable environmental and labor standards; and
14 WHEREAS, the United States has eliminated more carbon emissions than any other
15 country in the last fifteen years, and its economy is forty-four percent more carbon efficient
16 than the world average; and
17 WHEREAS, United States' manufacturers are more efficient in nearly every industry
18 from steel to solar panels to automobiles and yet are forced to compete with companies in
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1 China and elsewhere that face few limits on how much they pollute; and
2 WHEREAS, goods produced in China, on average, generate three times the CO
2
3 emissions of equivalent goods made in the United States, and goods produced in Russia emit
4 four times the emissions; and
5 WHEREAS, minerals mined in China are more than twice as carbon intensive as
6 those mined in the United States, the average carbon intensity of Russian oil is at least
7 thirty-three percent higher than United States oil, and Russian natural gas is sixty percent
8 more greenhouse gas intensive than United States natural gas; and
9 WHEREAS, many rural Americans are being left behind economically, suffering
10 from severe poverty, poor health care, and few economic opportunities, making them
11 increasingly vulnerable to crime and the opioid crisis; and
12 WHEREAS, the average per capita income for rural Americans is only forty-six
13 thousand dollars, compared to roughly sixty thousand dollars for all Americans, and the
14 poverty rate in rural America is fourteen point four percent, compared with eleven point nine
15 percent nationwide; and
16 WHEREAS, United States rural communities have lower wages, property taxes, and
17 land prices, which should give them a competitive advantage in attracting investments in
18 manufacturing that provide revenue streams that help fund local schools and infrastructure;
19 and
20 WHEREAS, manufacturing jobs pay a more important role in the rural economy than
21 in urban areas, accounting for a greater share of jobs and earnings; and
22 WHEREAS, United States' trade policy, which has given foreign polluters an unfair
23 advantage over the past two decades, has encouraged economic restructuring across rural
24 America that has resulted in manufacturing employment falling by close to thirty percent;
25 and
26 WHEREAS, China has been the major beneficiary of this poorly designed federal
27 trade policy, with the United States losing roughly five million jobs in the last twenty years,
28 and half of those losses are the result of the United States trade deficit with China; and
29 WHEREAS, rewarding United States firms for their environmental performance
30 would bolster domestic manufacturing and generate good paying jobs, particularly in rural
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1 areas, and reduce dependence on imports from high emitting producers like Russia and
2 China.
3 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
4 does hereby memorialize the Congress of the United States to take such actions as are
5 necessary to enact a trade policy that holds high-polluting countries like China and Russia
6 accountable for their pollution and promotes American economic development and the
7 rebuilding of United States supply chains, particularly in rural communities, by rewarding
8 American businesses and workers for their superior environmental performance while
9 penalizing global polluters.
10 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution shall be transmitted
11 to the secretary of the United States Senate and the clerk of the United States House of
12 Representatives and to each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States
13 Congress.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Kathy Liberty.
DIGEST
SR 53 Original 2023 Regular Session Kleinpeter
Memorializes Congress to enact a trade policy that supports United States businesses and
workers while penalizing global polluters.
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