When President Trump says we will no longer tolerate foreign “pollution havens” where jobs are offshored, North Dakota knows exactly what the challenge is. This session our Legislature adopted House Concurrent Resolution 3009 by unanimous voice vote, telling Washington to stop giving foreign polluters a free pass and start standing up for American workers. No nation on Earth produces energy or manufactures goods as cleanly as the United States, yet we keep letting countries China flood our markets with dirt-cheap products made with abysmal standards. That ends when we put America first.
Our economy is 44% more carbon-efficient than the world average, and private-sector innovation (specifically, natural gas and oil development) has helped the United States cut more emissions over the last 15 years than any other country.
Meanwhile, Beijing pumps out a third of the planet’s pollution — more than the entire Western world combined — and does it with Communist Party subsidies, stolen technology, and zero regard for basic environmental or labor standards. A widget made in China spews three times the pollution of one made here; Russian goods are even worse. Yet 75% of what we import comes from high-polluting nations that laugh at rules we take seriously.
North Dakotans feel that unfairness implicitly with the sense that we are getting ripped off. Main Street producers know it explicitly, when federal regulators lock up our public lands, block pipelines, and slow-walk permits. Our communities feel it personally when this strips potential billions of dollars from our schools and roads. So why are we forcing the nation to import over 80% of its critical minerals — minerals we could mine right here?
This resolution demands trade policy that punishes global polluters and rewards American excellence. If China or any other country wants the immense privilege of access to the world’s greatest consumer market, they should meet our standards, or pay a penalty that erases their dirty subsidy. That kind of trade policy would level the playing field, bring supply chains back home, and create good-paying jobs in rural America instead of mega factories in Xinjiang.
China has been waging a trade war for decades with stolen patents, state-owned industry, and environmental cheating. President Trump is thankfully addressing that with his America First trade agenda. North Dakota is calling for that to be made more targeted, hitting our competitors where it hurts. We also want to make trade policy durable, with action in Congress, so businesses can predictably know that they will benefit from — not be punished for — doing business cleaner, here in the United States.
HCR 3009 now heads to every member of our congressional delegation. North Dakota has charted a course that aligns perfectly with President Trump’s agenda: secure our supply chains, crush foreign pollution cheats, and put American workers back in the driver’s seat of the global economy. Now it’s up to Republicans in Washington and President Trump to get the job done.
Olson represents District 26 in the North Dakota Legislature and is the House Republican caucus leader.