This morning, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey are introducing Green New Deal resolution. This resolution lays down a clear set of markers and principles that, if (when) adopted as core to U.S. government policy for the decade(s) to come, will make the most significant statement about and most significant set of measures to address climate change risks while seizing the reality of ‘crisis’ to strengthen society for the present and tomorrow.
From an Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s office site’s blog post on the Green New Deal from the 5th: [note: that link will not work as that page/blog post was deleted shortly after this piece was written/posted]
The Green New deal achieves this through a World War 2 scale mobilization that focuses the robust and creative economic engine of the United States on reversing climate change by fully rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, restoring our natural ecosystems, dramatically expanding renewable power generation, overhauling our entire transportation system, upgrading all our buildings, jumpstarting US clean manufacturing, transforming US agriculture, and putting our nation’s people to work doing what they do best: making the impossible possible.
Any large-scale transformation of society can create the risk of some people slipping through the cracks. That’s why the Green New Deal also calls for an upgrade to the basic economic securities enjoyed by all people in the US to ensure everybody benefits from the newly created wealth. It guarantees to everyone:
A job with family-sustaining wages, family and medical leave, vacations, and retirement security
High-quality education, including higher education and trade schools
High-quality health care
Clean air and water
Healthy food
Safe, affordable, adequate housing
An economic environment free of monopolies
Economic security to all who are unable or unwilling to work
Before taking additional keystrokes, an important public service statement of appreciation:
- Thank you Sunrise Movement founders/activists who have leveraged the work of many others, for many years, and helped spark a dramatic shift in the public conversation.
- Thank you Representative Ocasio-Cortez for your
- passion about climate issues and how critical the requirement is to act,
- full comprehension of how choosing to Act On Climate is an investment that provides the potential for massive return (financial, social structure/equity/etc),
- incredible skill in communicating difficult issues in understandable and compelling ways, and
- leadership on pushing the Green New Deal forward in public and in the Halls of Congress.
- Thank you Senator Markey for your
- long-term work and passion about developing better climate policy.; and,
- leadership in spearheading this resolution.
Right now, the most important item about the Green New Deal resolution is that it exists. With climate-science denialist Donald Trump occupying the Oval Office, fossil fools in political appointment positions and controlling the Senate, this resolution will not pass and become law in the coming 23 months. It does, however, set a marker for developing legislation to have ready to have the desk of the next President come 21 January 2021. For those of us who have concerned about climate change for years (decades) and have seen the nation take one step forward to be followed by two (or more) steps back, this is an amazing moment to conceive. While this GND resolution is introduced on the Hill,
- Candidates from local school boards to many of the Democratic Party Presidential Primary candidates are endorsing Green New Deal;
- Legislation and policy discussions of Green New Deal (variants) are being introduced in County and State political bodies; and,
- Public support for climate action — for a Green New Deal — is at stunning levels (over 80% Democratic identified people and over 50% Republican when polled on basic principles).
While there is incredible amount of discussion that can/will be had about the Green New Deal (from ‘is it aggressive enough’+ to tweaking policy nuances (that matter) to balancing the role of the private/public sectors to asking if it misses real opportunities* to ….), the core point of the moment is to:
- Thank those who have been driving the Green New Deal into public conversation and into the Halls of Congress; and,
- Call on political and ‘thought’ leaders, of all stripes and at all levels, to support a Green New Deal as a fundamental and core element of government policy and investment.
NOTEs/PS
* “Miss real opportunities”: The GND resolution gets into specific technologies and policies, in a few cases, such as calling for “high-speed trains”. While that merits discussion (for example, far more valuable/critical is electrifying rail and upping capacity (nation-wide) for mid-speed rail), the GND resolution doesn’t seem (on first read, on word search) to have a syllable about a powerful arena: the payoff for greening school infrastructure. Not only is that valuable and critical space, it also appears to meet essentially all the core principles of the GND and is a massively popular option across the entire nation.
+ Re ‘is it aggressive enough’, an example is an already emergent challenge is ‘KIITG’: keep it in the ground. Already, this morning, Friends of the Earth criticized the Green New Deal resolution for not explicitly calling for an end to Fossil Fuels. That criticism comes within praise, however.
The Green New Deal is a strong vision for the future, stuck in the politics of today. We enthusiastically endorse the many pieces of the resolution that call for systemic change. But by failing to expressly call for an end of the fossil fuel era, the resolution misses an opportunity to define the scope of the challenge.
We are encouraged by many pieces of the resolution, including the embrace of a federal jobs guarantee, the commitment to worker rights and collective bargaining and recognition that the Green New Deal must be developed from the ground up in collaboration with frontline communities. While incomplete, the resolution is a good first step toward a Green New Deal.
It’s up to the grassroots to keep pushing at every step of this fight for an expansive vision that ends our fossil fuel addiction and solves the climate crisis.
Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth president
– Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was on NPR earlier this morning. The few minutes are truly worth listening to for an excellent example of her effective ability to communicate difficult issues and for her words about the Green New Deal.
# Seen (published) after posted this, Dave Roberts has an excellent initial look at the Resolution that merits reading to provide a framework for understanding what it does to shift the ‘climate’ legislation discussion (move The Overton Window) in a progressive manner/way.
But take a step back and appreciate: the progressive movement has, in rather short order, thrust into mainstream US politics a program to address climate change that is wildly more ambitious than anything the Democratic Party was talking about even two years ago. One-hundred percent clean energy, investment in new jobs, and a just transition have gone from activist dreams to the core of the Democratic agenda in the blink of a political eye. There’s a long way to go, but the GND train has come farther, faster than anyone could have predicted.