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Democrats Formally Call for a Green New Deal, Giving Substance to a Rallying Cry Liberal Democrats Formally Call for a Green New Deal, Giving Substance to a Rallying Cry
(about 3 hours later)
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WASHINGTON — House Democrats put flesh on their bold “Green New Deal” slogan on Thursday with a sweeping resolution that calls for the United States to pump no additional carbon into the atmosphere by 2030 while creating jobs and health care for millions of people. WASHINGTON — Liberal Democrats put flesh on their “Green New Deal” slogan on Thursday with a sweeping resolution intended to redefine the national debate on climate change by calling for the United States to eliminate additional emissions of carbon by 2030.
The legislative prospects for the measure were bleak in the foreseeable future; a resolution is essentially a statement of intention, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has no plan to bring it to the floor for a vote, according to a Democratic leadership aide with direct knowledge of her plans. The measure, drafted by the freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, is intended to answer the demand, by the party’s restive base, for a grand strategy that combats climate change, creates jobs and offers an affirmative response to the challenge to core party values posed by President Trump.
Ms. Pelosi countered with a move of her own on Thursday, naming the Democrats who will lead a new special select committee on climate change — and leaving off the chief architect of the Green New Deal, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The resolution introduced has more breadth than detail and is so ambitious that Republicans greeted it with derision. Its legislative prospects are bleak in the foreseeable future; Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has no plan to bring it to the floor for a vote, according to a Democratic leadership aide with direct knowledge of her plans.
Still, the measure, drafted by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, gives shape and substance to an idea that, until now, had been a vague rallying cry for a grand stimulus package around climate change. But as a blueprint for liberal ambition, it is breathtaking. It includes a 10-year commitment to convert “100 percent of the power demand in the United States” to “clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources,” to upgrade “all existing buildings” to meet energy efficiency requirements, and to undertake an enormous expansion of high-speed rail that would, its authors claim, render most air travel obsolete.
The proposal does not set a date for eliminating fossil fuels. It does call for generating 100 percent of electricity through renewable sources like wind and solar in the next 10 years, eliminating greenhouse emissions in manufacturing and forestry “as much as is technologically feasible,” and re-engineering cars and trucks to end climate pollution. The initiative, introduced as a nonbinding resolution in the House, is tethered to an infrastructure program that its authors say could create millions of new “green jobs,” while guaranteeing health care, “a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security” to every American.
“Climate change and our environmental challenges are the biggest existential threats to our way of life,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said on Thursday. “We must be as ambitious and innovative in our solutions as possible.”
Mr. Markey added, “We will save all of creation by engaging in massive job creation.”
The resolution, modeled on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, will not advance in its current form, but some ideas could become part of more modest legislation to address the climate crisis. Ms. Pelosi countered on Thursday with a move of her own, naming the Democrats who will lead a new special committee on climate change — and leaving off the chief architect of the Green New Deal, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
“Frankly, I haven’t seen it,” the speaker told reporters when asked about the proposal during her weekly media availability at the Capitol on Thursday. “But I do know it is enthusiastic, and we welcome all the enthusiasm that is out there.”
Ms. Pelosi is likely to be wary of moving quickly, mindful of her own past mistakes. A decade ago, she pushed the last major climate change measure hard, an ambitious bill to cap emissions of climate-warming pollution, then allow industries to trade emissions credits on a pollution credit market. Through force of will, she got the cap-and-trade measure through the House, only to see it die in the Senate without a vote. The next year, Democrats were swept from power.
In that Congress, she had a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, Barack Obama. This time, she has a president who calls climate change a hoax and a Senate in the control of Mitch McConnell, a Republican from the coal state of Kentucky.
But on Friday, she was also intent on letting her critics on the left know about her own past efforts, adding that she had made climate change the “flagship issue” of her first speakership.
Republicans seized on the proposal with relish, portraying the entire resolution as absurd.
“The socialist Democrats are off to a great start with the rollout of their ridiculous Green New Deal today!” said Bob Salera, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the political arm of House Republicans, who called the idea “zany.”
But Democratic candidates for the presidency did not shy away from it once the details emerged. Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, quickly sent out a fund-raising appeal, declaring, “For too long, we have been governed by lawmakers who are beholden to big oil and big coal. They have refused to act on climate change. So it’s on us to speak the truth, rooted in science fact, not science fiction.”
Yet for all of its audacity, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Markey steered clear of several thorny issues. The proposal does not set a date for eliminating fossil fuels. It does call for generating all electricity through renewable sources like wind and solar within 10 years, eliminating greenhouse emissions in manufacturing and forestry “as much as is technologically feasible,” and re-engineering cars and trucks to end climate pollution.
The measure also includes social justice goals not usually attached to antipollution plans, like eradicating poverty by creating high-paid jobs.The measure also includes social justice goals not usually attached to antipollution plans, like eradicating poverty by creating high-paid jobs.
But the resolution goes far beyond that, touching on themes that are animating a rising left but that rarely reach the halls of Congress. It aims to “promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth.” But the resolution goes far beyond that, touching on themes that are animating a rising left but rarely reach the halls of Congress. It aims to “promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities and youth.”
Sixty members of the House and nine senators are co-sponsoring the resolution, including several presidential candidates, according to a fact sheet provided by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s office. There is no mention of costs or how to pay for the proposed changes.Sixty members of the House and nine senators are co-sponsoring the resolution, including several presidential candidates, according to a fact sheet provided by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s office. There is no mention of costs or how to pay for the proposed changes.
Ms. Pelosi has been decidedly cool to the proposal, but not the movement behind it.
“Frankly, I haven’t seen it,” the speaker told reporters when asked about the Green New Deal during her weekly news conference at the Capitol on Thursday. “But I do know it is enthusiastic, and we welcome all the enthusiasm that is out there.”
People close to Ms. Pelosi said she is wary of moving too quickly, mindful of her own past mistakes. A decade ago she pushed the last major climate change measure hard, an ambitious bill to cap emissions of climate-warming pollution, then allow industries to trade emissions credits on a pollution credit market. Through force of will, she got the cap-and-trade measure through the House, only to see it die in the Senate without a vote. The next year, Democrats were swept from power.
In that Congress, she had a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, Barack Obama. This time, she has a president who calls climate change a hoax and a Senate in the control of Mitch McConnell, a Republican from the coal state of Kentucky.
On Friday, Ms. Pelosi was intent on letting her critics on the left know about her own efforts under Presidents Bush and Obama, adding that she had made climate change “her flagship issue” of her first speakership, and boasting that her legislation was “one of the biggest energy bills” in history.
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