New Dems Press for Green New Deal Now

Dec 3, 2018

Hundreds of Sunrise Movement protesters are joined by Congresswoman Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Minority Leader Pelosi’s Office in Washington DC on Nov. 13th.

Incoming Democrats, like Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, are building support for an ambitious climate plan.  Now, they’re among 35 (as of Dec.13h) members of Congress, including our Rep. Jared Huffman, and 4 senators, who are calling for a select committee with a mandate to draft comprehensive legislation for a Green New Deal.   350.org is supporting the demand for this committee and plan, as is the Sunrise Movement, the group that organized the protest in Minority Leader Pelosi’s Washington DC office shown above.  According to the Sunrise Movement press release, nearly 100 of the most powerful community, environmental and economic justice organizations in the country have also now endorsed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s resolution for a Select Committee on a Green New Deal.

In an opinion piece published in the Huffington Post, economist Stephanie Kelton, urban policy expert Andres Bernal, and climate action policy expert Greg Carlock make the case that we absolutely have the money to pay for a massive Green New Deal because the catastrophic human, environmental and economic costs of not addressing climate change – costs already moving into the billions per year – will ultimately be far greater than the costs of mobilizing to transition to renewable energy infrastructure from fossil fuel infrastructure:

“Anything that is technically feasible is financially affordable. And it won’t be a drag on the economy ― unlike the climate crisis itself, which will cause tens of billions of dollars worth of damage to American homes, communities and infrastructure each year. A Green New Deal will actually help the economy by stimulating productivity, job growth and consumer spending, as government spending has often done. (You don’t have to go back to the original New Deal for evidence of that.)

In fact, a Green New Deal can create good-paying jobs while redressing economic and environmental inequities.”

See the full opinion piece HERE.