- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday published a broad outline of her Green New Deal.
- The outline gives a first impression of an ambitious plan that Ocasio-Cortez says will tackle climate change and could turn the US carbon-neutral within a decade.
- Ocasio-Cortez is set to introduce the nonbinding resolution to the House of Representatives on Thursday, and she said more complete legislation would follow.
- Scroll down for a breakdown of the plan and its full text.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has released the outline of her Green New Deal, an ambitious plan to revolutionize the US economy that includes provisions designed to make the US carbon-neutral in 10 years.
NPR published the framework of the Green New Deal on Thursday morning. Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has previously written climate legislation, are set to introduce the nonbinding resolution in the House of Representatives later in the day.
Even if it passes, the resolution will not itself create any action toward achieving the plan, though it would be a significant statement of intent. Ocasio-Cortez has said she is working to add more detail to the proposal.
Here’s the full text of the resolution, first published by NPR:
Broadly, the deal's goals are to reduce pollution, invest in infrastructure, and promote equality.
The resolution says the US could achieve this over the next 10 years through steps including:
- Funding projects and strategies to build the US's capacity to face climate-related disasters.
- Repairing and upgrading US infrastructure "by eliminating pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as much as technologically feasible."
- Switching the country's energy supply to use "clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources."
- Enacting measures to reduce or eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from farms, transport systems, and manufacturing.
- Upgrading buildings to be more energy-efficient.
- Protecting more ecosystems.
- Cleaning hazardous-waste sites.
The document notes the negative effects that an increase of 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels would have on the US and its economy.
It says climate change could cost the US economy trillions of dollars and bring about "an increase in wildfires, severe storms, droughts, and other extreme weather events that threaten human life, healthy communities, and critical infrastructure."
The document also endorses other policies, such as universal healthcare.
The document is nonbinding, so it does not require the House to implement its contents. But Ocasio-Cortez said she would draft legislation to "fully flesh out the projects involved in the Green New Deal," Reuters reported.
Ocasio-Cortez centered her congressional campaign on the idea of a Green New Deal and has described climate change as the most significant threat to the US. Her campaign website says it is the "single biggest national security threat for the United States and the single biggest threat to worldwide industrialized civilization."
In an FAQ document published alongside the plan's outline, Ocasio-Cortez said a Green New Deal would be funded "the same way we paid for the New Deal, the 2008 bank bailout and extended quantitative easing programs," and "the same way we paid for World War II and all our current wars."
"At the end of the day, this is an investment in our economy that should grow our wealth as a nation, so the question isn't how will we pay for it, but what will we do with our new shared prosperity," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez also appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" radio show to speak about the plan:
The resolution is cosponsored by 60 members of the House and nine senators, The Guardian reported, citing a fact sheet provided by congressional aides.
Markey tried to introduce sweeping climate-change legislation a decade ago, Reuters said. It passed through the House but was stopped in the Senate.