New York Democratic Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday unveiled new details on the so-called
"Green New Deal"
she plans to introduce in a matter of days, as she worked
behind-the-scenes to rally congressional support for the proposal that
could cost as much as $7 trillion.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is set to
unveil the plan with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, told her
fellow representatives in a letter that the Green New Deal calls for
a "national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not
seen since World War II."
"Next week, we plan to release a
resolution that outlines the scope and scale of the Green New Deal,”
Ocasio-Cortez said in the letter, adding that the country's
near-total economic transformation should take approximately ten years.
To
raise awareness for the measure, Markey announced Monday he had
invited Varshini Prakash, the co-founder of the Sunrise Movement
environmentalist group, to be his guest at President Trump's
State of the Union address Tuesday night. (Several other Democrats
announced guests apparently intended to highlight their opposition to various Trump administration policies, while Trump himself
extended invites
to the family of a couple allegedly murdered by an illegal
immigrant and a child bullied at school for having the last name
"Trump.")
The Green New Deal proposal would lead to national
net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ocasio-Cortez's letter,
“through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,”
while also generating millions of “good, high-wage jobs." Details of the
letter were first published by Bloomberg.
ANALYSIS: GREEN NEW DEAL IS MOST RADICAL LEGISLATION IN DECADES
Through
it all, the Green New Deal would additionally “promote justice and
equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to
frontline and vulnerable communities," according to Ocasio-Cortez.
December 10, 2018 - Washington, DC, United States - Protesters
seen holding placards during the Sunrise Movement protest inside the
office of US Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to advocate that
Democrats support the Green New Deal.
(Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images via ZUMA Wire)
On Twitter Monday, Ocasio-Cortez
reposted a claim from one of her advisers, Robert Hockett,
arguing that "in this case, size matters"
and that "the problems the Green New Deal addresses require solutions
where bigger is better, imperative, and paraodixcally, more affordable."
Hockett is a
lawyer and law professor, and is not an expert in environmental policy.
Several analysts,
meanwhile, have cautioned that the liberal firebrand is in over her
head, even though the as-yet vague and uncertain details about the Green
New Deal render a precise calculation impossible at the moment.
Physicist Christopher Clack told
The Hill that the cost would easily be into the trillions.
“It’s
a daunting task, and I’m not sure that the authors of the Green New
Deal fully comprehend how much they’ll need,” Clack said.
Institute
for Energy Research president Tom Pyle was more blunt: “One hundred
percent renewable energy defies the laws of physics. It would be
impossible to achieve.”
And Paul Bledsoe, a strategic adviser at
the Progressive Policy Institute, said progressives were
overcompensating. “I understand the value of aspirational goals,”
Bledsoe said. “My personal view is, that undermines the credibility of
the effort.”
Nevertheless, approximately 70 Democratic lawmakers
have so far tentatively endorsed a Green New Deal plan, including
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Democratic Sen.
Kamala Harris.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has vowed to
address climate change, has not publicly signed onto the plan, even
though scores of progressive activists --
joined by Ocasio-Cortez -- staged a sit-in at her House office late last year, demanding action on the climate.
While
there is no legislative text yet available for the Markey/Ocasio-Cortez
proposal, a draft circulated by Ocasio-Cortez last week called for a
committee to be formed to create a plan, and lays out a framework that
includes eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and
agriculture, while “dramatically” expanding energy sources to meet 100
percent of power demand through renewable sources.
FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2018, file photo, House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined by from left, Rep. Eric Swalwell,
D-Calif., Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio., and Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla.,
speaks to media at Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in
Washington, Wednesday, to announce her nomination by House Democrats to
lead them in the new Congress. Pelosi has appointed Castor to lead a
special committee on climate change that replaces one eliminated by
Republicans in 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
To cover what would presumably be a gargantuan cost,
it envisions financing by “the federal government, using a combination
of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and
specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles
or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to
ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public
investments made in connection with the plan will be returned to the
treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.”
CRENSHAW, OCASIO-CORTEZ TRADE BARBS ON WEALTH TAX, NFL PROTESTS
As
it stands, any such proposal would be almost certainly dead on arrival
in the Republican-controlled Senate, and also possibly the House --
where it is not clear if a majority of Democrats would back a plan.
Even
if Congress managed to pass a version of the Green New Deal, the White
House could veto the legislation, and a two-thirds majority in both the
House of Representatives and the Senate would be needed to override the
veto.
The Trump administration has made clear it would not accept
Ocasio-Cortez's proposals. In January, White House Press Secretary Sarah
Sanders derided Ocasio-Cortez's recent claim that
the world will end in 12 years due
to climate change, and suggested the Trump administration has little
need for the progressive firebrand's thoughts in general.
"I
don't think we're going to listen to [Ocasio-Cortez] on much of
anything -- particularly not on matters we're gonna leave in the hands
of a much, much higher authority -- and certainly, not listen to the
freshman congresswoman on when the world may end," Sanders
told Fox News' "Hannity."
Speaking
at an event commemorating Martin Luther King Day that
month, Ocasio-Cortez asserted that climate change constituted "our World
War II" and added: “Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all
these folks that will come after us are looking up and we’re like: ‘The
world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and
your biggest issue is, how are we gonna pay for it?'"
But
conservative commentators have argued that most proposed solutions to
global warming would do more harm than good, and also have accused
climate activists of crying wolf. In 2006, a NASA scientist and leading
global warming researcher declared that the world had only
10 years to avert a climate catastrophe -- a deadline that has come and gone.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
