The Green New Deal is here.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) are set to release a House resolution on Thursday detailing a sweeping plan to make the United States carbon neutral by 2030, upgrade efficiency and sustainability for national infrastructure and private businesses, and create “millions” of jobs in the process.
The final resolution for a Green New Deal reads like a progressive manifesto; it includes support for top progressive issues like a single-payer health care plan and a jobs guarantee for all Americans. But it’s important to note the resolution is not a bill — a top aide to Ocasio-Cortez told Vox the idea is to release separate bills detailing exactly how they plan to achieve a massive overhaul of infrastructure and manufacturing.
“Each of the national projects we lay out might be their own bills,” said Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti.
For instance, one of the goals laid out in the Green New Deal is “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency,” a project that would take a huge amount of money and manpower to do.
The resolution calls for massive federal investment into tackling the problem of climate change, to match the scale of environmental devastation brought on by drought, wildfires, and rising sea levels if the United States and other nations don’t bring down their level of carbon emissions.
The resolution already has around 60 House co-sponsors and nine Senate co-sponsors, per the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, but another goal of Ocasio-Cortez and climate organizers is to get support from 2020 Democrats.
Read the final version of the Green New Deal below.