In case you're looking for an alternative to tariffs that's acceptable to President Trump and other protectionists… Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham have reintroduced the Foreign Pollution Fee Act (FPFA), which would impose escalating tariffs on carbon-intensive imported goods from sectors including aluminum, cement, steel, fertilizer, glass, and hydrogen. As AAF's Shuting Pomerlau writes, the legislation establishes a multi-tiered tariff framework with rates varying by country and sector based on carbon intensity relative to U.S. counterparts. While eliminating the previous version's 15% base rate, the new proposal would subject developing countries like Vietnam to tariffs as high as 200%, while most sectors from countries like France would face no tariffs.

The FPFA would operate through a variable rate framework that assigns higher tariffs to more carbon-intensive imports. Countries and sectors are placed in different tiers based on their emissions compared to equivalent U.S. industries, with rates escalating across tiers and varying within them. The proposal includes provisions for "International Partnership Agreements" that could fully exempt countries implementing equivalent environmental and trade policies, along with stringent measures to prevent circumvention through transshipment. While the 2025 version is expected to generate less revenue than the $212.8 billion projected for the 2024 draft, it would still be a useful revenue raiser to put in the reconciliation bill.

The idea, of course, is to come up with some form of protectionism that is more palatable to the more centrist and technocrat-minded members of the coalition. It's a clever way of targeting China, in particular, which is notorious for its environmental violations. Unlike broad-based tariffs, this targeted approach would aim to create incentives for trading partners to reduce carbon emissions while protecting American industries that have invested in cleaner production processes; in practice it would mean better trade conditions for friendly allied countries like Europe and Japan, while protecting US industries from China.

It's an interesting gambit.

Policy News You Need To Know

#Tariffs — Everything is tariffs. Senators Rand Paul and Ron Wyden have teamed up to introduce a resolution that would terminate the national emergency underpinning all the tariffs Trump announced last week. The resolution is co-sponspored by senators Schumer, Kaine, Shaheen, Welch, and Warren.

#NationwideInjunctions — However, not everything is tariffs. The smart conservative response to the problem of liberal activist judges gumming up the works of the Trump Administration—a response that recognizes the fundamental impossibility of allowing activist judges to essentially take over the executive branch, but also seeks to avoid a constitutional crisis—has landed on the issue of nationwide injunctions. District judges should be able to stop particular actions affecting plaintiffs in the specific cases that are brought to them, but they should not be able to issue, well, injunctions that are nationwide. If that's what the plaintiffs want, they should get it from the Supreme Court, not any court.

#Immigration — Important new report from CIS: "Which Sanctuary Jurisdictions Have Released the Most Criminals?"

#VotingRights — According to the Michigan Secretary of State's office, 15 non-citizens voted in the Presidential election last November.

#ReligiousLiberty #JDVance — Terrifying but timely and important report from the Family Research Council on how European governments have attacked prayer.

#Energy — Here's the excellent Josiah Neeley of R Street on California's energy policies.

#Energy — Speaking of, we also have R Street's Philip Rosetti on the Defense Production Act and how the Trump Administration might use it as part of its energy agenda. Useful briefing.

#DEI — Chris Caldwell is always a must-read on issues of DEI, and here he is in The Spectator on the Trump Administration's anti-DEI initiatives.

#DOGE — Interesting: "Fannie Mae Fires Over 100 Employees for Unethical Conduct, Including the Facilitation of Fraud"