Tlaib on climate: ‘We’re going to make sure Biden administration sticks to our timeline’

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden hasn’t been sworn in, but already the House Democratic “squad” is bringing the heat on the Green New Deal.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, vowed at a climate rally Thursday to “secure the basic tenets of a Green New Deal,” while Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Democrat, said “we’re going to make sure the Biden administration sticks to our timeline.”

“I’ll tell you, when I met with President-elect Biden in Detroit, he said, I’m going to need your help. I said, sir, I’m going to help you get reelected [sic], don’t worry about that,” said Ms. Tlaib, adding, “But I said I may not be your favorite member of Congress because my timeline is different.”

She said that “our folks don’t have another day, another hour, another any moment, another week, a month.”

“So we’re on a different timeline and we’re going to make sure the Biden administration sticks to our timeline, is moving toward our timeline,” said Ms. Tlaib at the Sunrise Movement event in Washington.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, the House sponsor of the Green New Deal resolution, praised the Biden campaign’s “visionary, absolutely unprecedented” $2 trillion clean-energy plan, but said that “we’re not going to stop there.”

“We have worked with the Biden administration to secure a commitment on a $2 trillion climate plan,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “But we’re not going to stop there. We’re not going to stop with a piece of paper. That’s not what’s going to happen.”

Two years ago, it was @AOC and youth from the @sunrisemvmt. Today, it’s an entire Squad of Congressmembers and cross-generational movement leaders from across America. Our historic movement for a Green New Deal is growing. Sorry I couldn’t fly in! https://t.co/qkC9kfVmZP

— Kaniela Ing (@KanielaIng) November 19, 2020

She said that “we’re going to secure the basic tenets of a Green New Deal: a multi-trillion-dollar jobs program for climate; for environmental, racial, gender, and class justice. That’s what the Green New Deal is, and we will stick to that plan.”

That includes making sure that the Biden administration follows through on his clean-energy program, which calls for net-zero U.S. carbon emissions by 2050.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to organize and demand that this administration—which I believe is decent and kind and honorable—keep their promise,” said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. “So that’s what our next move is, to make sure that the Biden administration keeps its promise.”

In the final presidential campaign debate last month, Mr. Biden insisted that he would not ban fracking but that he would “transition from the oil industry,” saying that it must be replaced by renewable energy “over time.”