Florida Senate - 2024                                     SM 800
       
       
        
       By Senator Rodriguez
       
       
       
       
       
       40-00962-24                                            2024800__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to support solutions that examine the
    4         pollution differential between United States
    5         production and that of other countries and that hold
    6         foreign polluters accountable for their pollution.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, Florida’s natural resources and environment are
    9  essential to the state’s character, economy, and way of life,
   10  and
   11         WHEREAS, Florida, under Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership,
   12  has recently delivered investments to protect the state’s
   13  natural resources and environment, including Everglades
   14  restoration, waterway rehabilitation, and water quality
   15  infrastructure, and
   16         WHEREAS, China, by far the world’s largest polluter,
   17  accounts for over 30 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions
   18  and subsidizes its exports by not imposing or enforcing
   19  reasonable environmental and labor standards, and
   20         WHEREAS, Chinese government-owned industry is an arm of the
   21  Chinese Communist Party and strives to increase its influence
   22  over the global economy by pursuing predatory trade practices
   23  such as stealing intellectual property from the United States,
   24  and
   25         WHEREAS, the United States has reduced more carbon
   26  emissions than any other country in the last 15 years and has an
   27  economy that is 44 percent more carbon efficient than the world
   28  average, and
   29         WHEREAS, manufacturers in the United States are more
   30  efficient in nearly every industry and yet are forced to compete
   31  with companies in China and other countries that face few limits
   32  on how much they pollute, and
   33         WHEREAS, goods produced in China and Russia generate 300
   34  percent and 400 percent on average, respectively, more in carbon
   35  emissions compared to equivalent goods produced in the United
   36  States, and
   37         WHEREAS, United States trade policy has not taken into
   38  account carbon emissions, and as a result, afforded foreign
   39  polluters with loose carbon standards an advantage over the
   40  United States for the past several decades, and
   41         WHEREAS, China benefits from the current federal trade
   42  policy, and
   43         WHEREAS, rewarding United States firms for their
   44  environmental performance would bolster domestic manufacturing,
   45  generate good-paying jobs, and reduce dependence on imports from
   46  high-emitting producers like China and Russia, NOW, THEREFORE,
   47  
   48  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   49  
   50         That the Congress of the United States is urged to support
   51  solutions that examine the pollution differential between United
   52  States production and that of other countries and that hold
   53  foreign polluters accountable for their pollution.
   54         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State dispatch
   55  copies of this memorial to the President of the United States,
   56  to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of
   57  the United States House of Representatives, and to each member
   58  of the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.