Democrats float 'Green New Deal' to end fossil fuel era

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on Thursday laid out a “Green New Deal” that would eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions within a decade, an effort to make climate change a central issue in the 2020 presidential race.

The document, unveiled by rising political star Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey, marks the first formal attempt by lawmakers to define potential legislation to create big government-led investments in clean energy and infrastructure to transition the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels.

The plan, which takes the form of a non-binding congressional resolution, outlines some of the most aggressive climate goals ever put forward by Democratic lawmakers and clashes dramatically with the Trump administration’s efforts to advance domestic oil, gas and coal production by rolling back environmental protections.

The name, Green New Deal, references the New Deal of the 1930s that President Franklin Roosevelt implemented to aid Americans suffering in the Great Depression by embarking on huge government-led infrastructure projects.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-greennewdeal/democrats-launch-10-year-green-new-deal-for-clean-energy-idUSKCN1PW16I

[pangaia]

1. While details are in the details, so to speak,

I am really glad this is happening, and everything else AOC is speaking out about.

I just wish the media would stop using terms like, "rising political star Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ."

They don;t say this out of any respect for AOC, but rather only to promote themselves and clicks and advertising and viewers...

[doompatrol39]

2. Same...

..and I don't want this to be a Pelosi bashing thread because I think she is doing a damn fine job. But I hope the report wherever it came from that I read today, that made her sound completely dismissive of it (calling it "that green team or whatever they are called&quot is badly written and a misinterpretation of what she said and how she feels about it.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. About the committee members...

I heard AOC declined saying her schedule was full?

I thought climate change was 99% of the reason she is there?

Help me understand please. I sincerely want to understand.

WAIT she is ON the committee now? OK so the Green New Deal is legislation, wasnt she asked to be on the committee about climate change and declined???

[NNadir]

4. There's just a minor problem with it.

It won’t work.

As written, with zero attention to the experimental results of attempts to overcome physical laws with exactly this tired bit of faith based approaches to energy, it is nonsensical and will only serve to further entrench the gas industry.

[Finishline42]

5. A couple of ideas

One of the problems with how the govt pays for electricity is that it's buried in the operational budget of each department or project. So if you wanted to find out how much they spend every year for it, it's not an easy number to find, although it is easily 100's of millions if not billions of $$$ a year. Here's a couple of ideas to reduce that cost.

Include ownership when giving tax credits for wind and solar. In exchange for tax credits when building a windfarm or solar plant - 10% of the energy created goes to the Fed govt. Not only would it reduce the cost of govt but also provide a data point.

Have 10% of the Federal education aid be used to install solar on schools. Most schools systems have lots places to install solar. My local school system has over 100 schools so you could do a number of them every year. Plus the time that solar produces coincides with when the buildings are being used. BTW, utilities are typically the 2nd largest budget item for public schools.