Senator Seeks Pollution Tariff: Sen. Slade Gorton...

Senator Seeks Pollution Tariff: Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), saying U.S. manufacturers should not have to shoulder all the responsibility for cleaning up the environment, is proposing a pollution tariff on imported products, a report said. “We clean the air and the rest of the world dirties it,” Gorton said in a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Our business pays more regulatory expenses, driving our prices up, while foreign competition escapes these costs and gains a new competitive price advantage.” Gorton said he wants Congress to require any foreign industry selling products in the United States to either meet the Clean Air Act standards or pay a fee that matches compliance costs paid by U.S. business. According to Gorton aide Mike McGavick, the senator has been lining up co-sponsors for his tariff plan among Republican senators from the South and Midwest. He plans to introduce a resolution in the Senate later this week, McGavick said.