Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied support for the Green New Deal on Monday night, with the New York congresswoman saying there should be “no middle ground” when it comes to climate change and the Vermont senator calling for a political revolution.
Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, called for an end to all tax breaks and subsidies for the oil and gas industry as the first step of the Green New Deal, which seeks to shift the U.S. away from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable energy sources.
“How do we take on an industry with unlimited power, money and resources? We need a political revolution,” the Vermont senator said at “The Road to the Green New Deal Tour” rally at Howard University.
The Green New Deal, introduced by Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, has been blocked in the Senate, and Democratic House leaders refuse to take it up, but activists and politicians who back the plan are pushing to make it a top issue in the 2020 campaign.
The rally comes as Sanders and others seeking the Democratic presidential nomination criticize another 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, over his yet-to-be-released climate plan. Published reports suggest Biden is seeking “middle ground” on climate, a phrase that drew loud boos at Monday night’s rally, along with the mention of Biden’s name.
Ocasio-Cortez, the chief House author of the Green New Deal, drew applause when she criticized “conservatives from both sides of the aisle” who have cautioned her to go slow or who have urged more fracking for oil and natural gas.
“We cannot accept anything less than a path to save ourselves, which is this,” she said.
Biden has chafed at reports that he’s considering a less-ambitious approach to climate change than many of his rivals have endorsed, but he’s also expressed skepticism at the Green New Deal.
“We do need to finish this green revolution in a way that is rational, that we can do it, afford it and get it done now,” he said Monday in Hampton, New Hampshire. “There’s so much we can do.”
Biden said he would be making a “major speech” to detail his environmental policy by the end of the month.
The Green New Deal calls for virtual elimination by 2030 of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming and meeting 100 percent of U.S. power demand through renewable and zero-emission energy sources, including nuclear power. The proposal has broad support among Democratic activists and 2020 presidential contenders, putting it at the forefront of the party’s sprawling presidential primary.
Republicans say the plan would devastate the economy and lead to a huge tax increase. They call it more evidence of the creep of “socialism” in the Democratic Party, along with “Medicare for All” and a sweeping elections reform package that would allow public financing of congressional campaigns.
Markey, who also spoke at the rally, said Republicans who denounce the plan as socialism ignore more than a century of tax breaks for the oil industry.
Referring to wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources, Markey said, “Give us some of that socialism that the oil industry has been enjoying for 100 years.”
Senators including Markey and Sanders unanimously shunned a chance to take up the Green New Deal in March. Democrats called the vote scheduled by GOP leaders a political stunt, since Republicans widely oppose the plan, and declined to support a procedural motion to consider the nonbinding resolution.
The vote carried its own political risk for Republicans by appearing to mock climate change, an issue that a growing number of Americans care deeply about.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meanwhile, has rejected calls to schedule a vote on the plan and has given no timetable for when or if it will reach the House floor.
About 1,500 people attended Monday night’s rally, which featured remarks by author Naomi Klein; Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats; and activist Rhiana Gunn-Wright.
Organizers promise a nationwide campaign to make the 2020 election a referendum on the Green New Deal, with a “major demonstration” planned at a Democratic presidential debate in Detroit in July.
via newsmax
al gore said the earth was going to be gone by the year 2000 if we dont change our ways , but after all those lies and 19 years later were still here yes we need to take care of our planet , but when the rats start acting like theres a crisis then so will i
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this out of nowhere kook cortez is very one dimensional and only has one talking point and it is the green new deal but she reminds me a lot of jimmy carter in his days of his failed presidency , he would come on TV with his fireside chats and outline all of the problems that face America but he never had any solutions to those problems . Even the dumbest of the dumb know the problems but highlighting them over and over like this cortez woman does without any facts of how she plans to eliminate plains, cars and farting cows and still allow americans to live a meaningful life that brings some level of satisfaction and joy to a person after working so hard to achieve some success and be able to go to exotic places to see the world . is she going to have train service to everywhere , do we all need to become vegetarians freeze in our homes in the winter or sweat to death in the summer and walk or ride bicycles to and from everywhere . She could highlight how beautiful the world will be without all of these things but never backs it up with any scientific proof that there are alternatives to what she wants to eliminate and even if we do we are only a small part of this great big universe so who will pay for the rest of the world to join in . She should stop spreading fear because there are many people that are not capable of thinking on their own and they will follow this pied piper down the road while her and her flute lead us into the path of destruction