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.
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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.
