2. The Green New Deal Resolution Is Here

February 07, 2019

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by Mike Allen and Alexi McCammond (Axios) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) have unveiled their Green New Deal resolution — a call to arms on climate and jobs that's long on ambition, but lacking in details and a political path to becoming policy.

Why it matters: It opens the next phase for a movement that has risen quickly to play an outsized role in the climate policy conversation and influence the Democratic 2020 White House contest.

The big picture: The non-binding resolution envisions a massively expanded federal role in emissions-cutting and economic intervention that takes its cues from World War II and New Deal-era programs.

NPR posted a copy online here.

Drill down: Some of the resolution's top-line goals include...

Achieving net-zero U.S. greenhouse gas emissions through a "fair and just transition for all communities and workers" while creating millions of jobs.
Decarbonizing all the major segments of the economy — power, manufacturing, buildings, transportation and more.
Huge investments in climate-friendly infrastructure.
Protections for indigenous people, communities of color, the poor and others under the heading of "frontline and vulnerable communities."
A goal of universal health care and jobs guarantees.

What to watch: Ocasio-Cortez and Markey are holding a press conference on Thursday and will unveil the list of resolution's backers, so it'll be interesting to see how many of the 2020 Democratic hopefuls currently in Congress choose to sign on.

Axios has already learned that co-sponsors will include Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who are both in the race. The Washington Post report that Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are also co-sponsors.
Several other candidates have broadly endorsed the concept of the Green New Deal.
As the Washington Post's Jeff Stein points out, the resolution's arrival means that White House hopefuls will now be asked about something more concrete.

How it works: The many broad concepts in the resolution include "meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources."

It calls for energy efficiency in "all existing buildings" and new buildings, too, as well as cutting emissions from transportation as much as technologically possible.
The intrigue: That phrasing seems to leave the door open to technologies that some activists oppose (such as fossil fuels with carbon capture and nuclear energy), but doesn't name-check any of them, though Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff has broadly said that the goal is a transition from fossil fuels.

The big question: There's no specific projected cost for what would be massive federal investments under the resolution.

The plan broadly calls for grants, public banks and other public financing. It also highlights federal investments in "new clean and renewable energy technologies and industries."

What they're not saying: The plan is silent on whether it would impose a carbon tax. Some Green New Deal advocates have said a tax could be part of the policy — but don't see it as a central pillar.

What's next: The resolution is basically a political messaging document, so look for Green New Deal advocates to put more meat on its bones with legislation and papers in the coming months.

A bill based on the resolution would have zero chance of becoming law now — and a steep uphill climb in the foreseeable future, even if Democrats gain more power in Washington.
But it lays down a marker that could push Democrats toward embracing aggressive climate policies to promote through 2020 and beyond.

Go deeper: READ MORE

Green New Deal Resolution (NPR)

Ocasio-Cortez To Unveil Ambitious Plan To Combat Climate Change and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Releases Green New Deal Outline (NPR; includes AUDIO)

The Energy 202: Ocasio-Cortez, Markey unveil Green New Deal with backing of four presidential candidates (Washington Post; includes VIDEO)

2020 hopefuls hesitate to define ‘Green New Deal’ (Washington Post)

‘We’re nuts!’ isn’t a great pitch for a Green New Deal (Washington Post)

The world needs rational American leadership on climate change (Washington Post)

'Green New Deal' lands in the Capitol (Politico)

Ocasio-Cortez unveils Green New Deal climate resolution (The Hill)

Democrats unveil Green New Deal that would push government to make radical changes (Roll Call)

Ocasio-Cortez Unveils Green New Deal to Reset Climate Policy (Bloomberg)

'Green New Deal' doc phased out nuclear — until it didn't (E&E News)

GREEN NEW DAY: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Bold and urgent Green New Deal may change Washington’s climate change inertia (The Hill)

Select committee Dems still rely on fossil fuels (E&E News)

America’s Green New Deal is going to happen at state, not federal level (PV Magazine)

Ocasio-Cortez retracts erroneous information about Green New Deal backed by 2020 Democratic candidates (Washington Post)

Trump’s war on socialism will fail (Washington Post/E.J. Dionne, Jr.)

Excerpt from NPR: So did the idea of a Green New Deal start with Ocasio-Cortez? Not at all.

While the Green New Deal has in the last year or so grown central to progressive Democrats' policy conversations, the idea of a Green New Deal itself is well over a decade old. Environmentalists were talking about it as far back as 2003, when the term popped up in a San Francisco Chronicle article about an environmentalist conference.

It gained traction with a 2007 New York Times column from Thomas Friedman, where he used the phrase to describe the scope of energy investments he thought would be necessary to slow climate change on a large scale.

The phrase was also used around President Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus, which had around $90 billion worth of environmental initiatives.

While the idea gained some currency in Europe and also in the Green Party, it wasn't until after the 2016 election that it really gained broad popularity on the left in the U.S.(Vox's Dave Roberts has a more thorough history here).

This latest iteration is different both in the political energy that it has amassed and the grand scope it is taking. While it was a product of the progressive activist community, Ocasio-Cortez has been perhaps the most visible proponent of the plan and has helped it gain nationwide attention.

...

"Someone's going to have to prove to me how that can be accomplished because it looks to me like for the foreseeable future we're gonna be using a substantial amount of fossil fuels," said Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., co-chair of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, speaking to NPR before the Green New Deal's text was released.

For his part, Rooney is in favor of a carbon tax, a policy he helped propose with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in November. Information from Ocasio-Cortez's office says that the Green New Deal could include a carbon tax, but that it would be "a tiny part" of the total package of policies. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico: The resolution advocates for eliminating fossil fuels pollution and greenhouse gas emissions "as much as technologically feasible" in agriculture and transportation, two of the major sources of climate change gases.

Under the plan, the electricity system would run entirely on "clean, renewable, and zero-emission sources," the resolution states. It envisions newinvestments in public transportation, improving building energy efficiency, clean manufacturing and green infrastructure. Investments would prioritize communities that "may otherwise struggle with the transition away from greenhouse gas intensive industries" while also ensuring room for "high-paying union jobs" that include prevailing wages and protect collective bargaining rights. It also pushes to "stop the transfer of jobs and pollution overseas."

Achieving many of the goals would depend on a "massive investment program" from the federal government, according to Ocasio-Cortez's office, though it did not call for a carbon tax. Several environmental groups as well as center-right organizations and economists have advocated for such a tax, and Ocasio-Cortez'soffice said the "door is not closed for market-based incentives."

"We will finance the investments for the Green New Deal the same way we paid for the original New Deal, World War II, the bank bailouts, tax cuts for the rich, and decades of war — with public money appropriated by Congress," the release said. "Further, government can take an equity stake in Green New Deal projects so the public gets a return on its investment." READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: GREEN NEW DAY: The Green New Deal resolution sets out aggressive goals to achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions in a decade, as well as a broad set of other transformative economic changes. Michael Grunwald makes the case that even though enacting would be impossible, the resolution still has two useful purposes for Democrats.

"It's primarily a political manifesto, a messaging device designed to commit the Democratic Party to treating the climate crisis like a real crisis, pressuring its presidential candidates to support radical transformation of the fossil-fueled economy," he writes. "At the same time, the Green New Deal is a policy proposal — or at least a sketch of one, a way to launch a substantive debate over how Democrats will attack the crisis if they do regain the White House." Read more.

THE NEXT STEPS are now in the hands of House Democrats, who only this week began to reckon with climate change at the committee level. Most House Democrats were quick to laud the goals of the resolution, but soon split on whether they'd formally back the measure, as Pro's Eric Wolff, Anthony Adragna and Zack Colman report.

Enter the select panel on climate change: Members of the new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis say they're aiming to use the resolution as a template — even though the panel doesn't have the power to move legislation. Still, they plan to build public support for aggressive policies, as Anthony reports for Pros.

"What I hope this committee does is develop a very ambitious and very comprehensive road map to decarbonize our economy," said Rep. Jared Huffman, a panel member and Green New Deal co-sponsor. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Post/E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Socialism goes back a long way in the United States, and it has taken doses of it to keep the market system alive.

Going back to the late 19th century, Americans and Europeans, socialists and liberal reformers, worked together to humanize the system’s workings and to find creative ways to solve problems capitalism alone couldn’t.

...

Think about this when pondering the Green New Deal put forward last week by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y). It’s sweeping and adventurous. There is virtually no way it will become law as long as Republicans control the Senate and Trump is president. And if something like it eventually does get enacted, there will be many compromises and rewrites.

But there would be no social reform, ever, if those seeking change were too timid to go big and allowed cries of “socialism” to intimidate them. READ MORE