Following the lead of European Union bureaucrats, Senate Democrats have unveiled their proposal to impose a green tariff on certain “carbon-intensive” products. According to Axios:

The border carbon adjustment, or BCA, would protect American industries that have to pay more to comply with climate regulations from competitors based in countries that aren’t reducing their emissions as aggressively.

Foreign producers of goods such as steel would have to pay a fee based on each ton of carbon dioxide they emitted while producing such materials.

Initially, the draft bill targets the following energy and pollution-intensive products: steel, aluminum and cement, as well as natural gas, petroleum and coal.

The tariff may expand over time.

This is old-fashioned protectionism dressed-up as a way to fight climate change and (partially) pay for a multi-trillion infrastructure package.

Here’s the kicker about such proposals: “Such a measure could provoke other countries to act in ways that restrict American imports.”

That’s a roundabout way of saying it could launch a trade war. Who suffers most in such conflicts? As always, American consumers, who are forced to pay higher prices for fewer goods.