Midwest Dems want climate change tariff

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. manufacturers need help from a tariff slapped on imports from countries that don't limit their greenhouse gas emissions, Democratic senators say.

Midwestern Democrats are at odds with U.S. President Barack Obama with the proposal, which they say is necessary to help American companies that will face higher energy costs under the president's "cap-and-trade" climate change bill, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Backers of the proposed tariff, including Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Al Franken of Minnesota, say the measure "must be in" the climate change bill in order to win their backing. But the White House has rejected the tariff as sending "protectionist signals" in a time of economic stress, the newspaper said.

It's "about jobs, and it's an opportunity to fix some of our problems in manufacturing, and one of those is the way we've conducted trade in this country," Brown told the Times.

The climate change bill is awaiting action in the Senate after narrowly passing the House of Representatives.