Bernie's Green New Deal

**PointOfViewGun** · August 22, 2019, 08:57 AM

Bernie Sanders proposes $16.3 trillion Green New Deal plan

Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders unveiled a climate change strategy on Thursday that would mobilize $16.3 trillion to help the U.S. generate 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030 and achieve “full decarbonization” by 2050.

The plan would “launch a decade of the Green New Deal,” a 10-year federal “mobilization” that would factor climate change into every policy action from immigration to foreign policy while promising to create 20 million jobs in the process.

The plan outlines dozens of policies aimed aggressively moving the United States off of fossil fuels in the electricity, transportation and building sectors, restoring U.S. leadership and financial aid under the Paris Climate Agreement and pouring trillions of dollars to assist fossil fuel workers and vulnerable minority communities in the transition to a green economy.

It bans the practice of fracking to extract natural gas and oil, the import and export of fossil fuels and sets a moratorium on nuclear power plant license renewals.

“As President, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of climate change and mobilize the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with massive investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a transformation of our transportation system,” his plan says.

He unveiled his plans on his website in quite more detail than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did. The basics:

Reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by at least 2050 – consistent with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change goals – by expanding the existing federal Power Marketing Administrations to build new solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources.
Ending unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis. These jobs will be good paying, union jobs with strong benefits and safety standards in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will also create millions of jobs in sustainable agriculture, engineering, a reimagined and expanded Civilian Conservation Corp, and preserving our public lands.
Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts, in line with the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII, but with an explicit choice to include black, indigenous and other minority communities who were systematically excluded in the past.
A just transition for workers. This plan will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians. We will provide five years of unemployment insurance, a wage guarantee, housing assistance, job training, health care, pension support, and priority job placement for any displaced worker, as well as early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work.
Declaring climate change a national emergency. We must take action to ensure a habitable planet for ourselves, for our children, and for our grandchildren. We will do whatever it takes to defeat the threat of climate change.
Saving American families money by weatherizing homes and lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality, modern public transportation, providing grants and trade-in programs for families and small businesses to purchase high-efficiency electric vehicles, and rebuilding our inefficient and crumbling infrastructure, including deploying universal, affordable high-speed internet.
Supporting small family farms by investing in ecologically regenerative and sustainable agriculture. This plan will transform our agricultural system to fight climate change, provide sustainable, local foods, and break the corporate stranglehold on farmers and ranchers.
Justice for frontline communities – especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly – to recover from, and prepare for, the climate impacts, including through a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. And providing those frontline and fenceline communities a just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure, economic development.
Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.
Meeting and exceeding our fair share of global emissions reductions. The United States has for over a century spewed carbon pollution emissions into the atmosphere in order to gain economic standing in the world. Therefore, we have an outsized obligation to help less industrialized nations meet their targets while improving quality of life. We will reduce domestic emissions by at least 71 percent by 2030 and reduce emissions among less industrialized nations by 36 percent by 2030 — the total equivalent of reducing our domestic emissions by 161 percent.
Making massive investments in research and development. We will invest in public research to drastically reduce the cost of energy storage, electric vehicles, and make our plastic more sustainable through advanced chemistry.
Expanding the climate justice movement. We will do this by coming together in a truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in solving the climate crisis.
Investing in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands. We will reauthorize and expand the Civilian Conservation Corps and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Corps to provide good paying jobs building green infrastructure.
This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. We will pay for the massive investment we need to reverse the climate crisis by:
- Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.
- Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.
- Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence.
- Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.
- Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.
- Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

Such a plan puts him as the most climate-oriented candidate out there. The plan is quite detailed with a lot of numbers thrown around. Have fun with it. Such a plan is not necessarily only necessary to tackle the climate problems. Such a plan is also required if USA wants to stay competitive. My main question is though, do people care? Do people realize how destructive climate is going to be if things continue as it is? Does USA have the guts to make the leap?

**Lord Thesaurian** · August 22, 2019, 10:03 AM

I agree with the precedent that climate change is an emergency and drastic measures are justified. I don’t think a Green New Deal will help stave off climate change, as the developing world will continue to subsidize and rely on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, even if wealthier countries can afford to convert to 100% renewables. Even in a best case scenario, we’ve already crossed the point of no return on climate change, and investment should focus as much on adaptation as on energy conversion.

65% of energy consumption in the world will take place in the developing world by 2035. The only realistic way to fund a multi trillion dollar program while also incentivizing developing countries to use cleaner energy will be for the US to continue to invest in natural gas and marketing it globally at a competitive price. Effectively banning the most common forms of natural gas extraction, together with all physical participation in fossil fuels markets, is counterproductive to the assumption that a green new deal will be paid for by economic growth.

Even if Sanders wants to also cut the military to get funding, something I don’t necessarily agree with, the program will not pay for itself. Future job growth and consumption is pure speculation, the same speculation used to justify tax cuts. We all saw how that worked out. It will have to be paid for with debt, and I think that’s something proponents should be honest about. The US can’t cut the military and ban major exports while also expecting to enjoy economic growth and the super power status that allows it to finance massive debt and trillion dollar programs.

If it actually helps solve the climate emergency, the spending is justified, but I don’t agree with key points of the proposal or its assumptions at this time.

**Aexodus** · August 22, 2019, 10:39 AM

I agree with the environmental policies, we need to be nearly or totally running off renewable energy by 2050. I’m just concerned how America is going to do this since at first glance there’s no mention of nuclear energy which in my opinion is crucial to a carbon free economy due to long term running costs and efficiency.

and

Ending unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis. These jobs will be good paying, union jobs with strong benefits and safety standards in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will also create millions of jobs in sustainable agriculture, engineering, a reimagined and expanded Civilian Conservation Corp, and preserving our public lands.

You can’t end unemployment, there will always be some unemployment. I do agree with the initiative, since the secondary sector is soon going to be replaced by automation and new jobs such as these will be required in all industrialised countries.

Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts, in line with the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII, but with an explicit choice to include black, indigenous and other minority communities who were systematically excluded in the past.

Justice for frontline communities – especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly – to recover from, and prepare for, the climate impacts, including through a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. And providing those frontline and fenceline communities a just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure, economic development.

Expanding the climate justice movement. We will do this by coming together in a truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in solving the climate crisis.

Why do Sanders and Cortez feel the need to shoehorn in stupid social justice clauses into environmental campaigns. The green movement needs to ensure it DOES NOT get hijacked by SJWs. Or socialists, for example you have the red/green coalitions out there.

Meeting and exceeding our fair share of global emissions reductions. The United States has for over a century spewed carbon pollution emissions into the atmosphere in order to gain economic standing in the world. Therefore, we have an outsized obligation to help less industrialized nations meet their targets while improving quality of life. We will reduce domestic emissions by at least 71 percent by 2030 and reduce emissions among less industrialized nations by 36 percent by 2030 — the total equivalent of reducing our domestic emissions by 161 percent.

Realistically the likes of Pakistan, The Congo, Columbia etc will not agree to reduce emissions by as much as industrialised economies without coercive force. That said, it’s a good thing Sander’s plan intends to get other countries to reduce emissions, but the big thing is persuading - or if that doesn’t work coercing - countries in Europe such as Germany and the UK (which at present are onboard), countries in Asia like Russia, and especially China and India which are the two of the biggest emitters to dramatically reduce emissions, which isn’t happening at the moment.

**Prodromos** · August 22, 2019, 02:18 PM

This commie wants to hand Trump the election on a silver platter.

**Love Mountain** · August 22, 2019, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Aexodus

I agree with the environmental policies, we need to be nearly or totally running off renewable energy by 2050. I’m just concerned how America is going to do this since at first glance there’s no mention of nuclear energy which in my opinion is crucial to a carbon free economy due to long term running costs and efficiency.

and

You can’t end unemployment, there will always be some unemployment. I do agree with the initiative, since the secondary sector is soon going to be replaced by automation and new jobs such as these will be required in all industrialised countries.

I am also very annoyed with the constant blind eye that the nuclear industry gets. That industry has issues, sure, but it doesn't deserve to be completely ignored. Also, I believe he is talking about structural unemployment.

As for Bernie's plan.