Democrats are reviving the Green New Deal in a bid to influence the implementation of the president’s tax-and-climate spending law to make it resemble the far-reaching proposal’s green principles.
The original Green New Deal co-authors — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ed Markey of Massachusetts — refiled their legislation on Thursday to mark the fourth anniversary of its introduction.
They said the legislation, which calls for ditching fossil fuels to achieve a net-zero economy within a decade, has already had an impact on environmental and infrastructure policies passed under Mr. Biden.
“We said we are not going to take crumbs, that we need bold, big climate action, and we need it now. And that fight resulted in the largest piece of climate legislation in American history,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the Capitol. “We are showing how we can use the dollars secured in the Inflation Reduction Act to make this a reality.”
The Democrats also unveiled a “Green New Deal implementation guideline” that Mr. Markey said is designed to show how the tax-and-climate bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act and a 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law “can and must be used to turn Green New Deal aims into Green New Deal action across our country.”
While it’s true Mr. Biden’s signature climate law marked a historic amount of federal spending to combat global warming — $370 billion in green energy tax credits over the next decade — the Green New Deal calls for far more drastic measures and an overhaul of how the U.S. economy would function.
The proposal says the globe should reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and that the U.S. source 100% of its electricity from renewable or zero-emissions supplies within 10 years. The plan would fundamentally reshape how Americans live, travel and eat.
The Biden administration has taken far-reaching steps on climate change, such as proposing the strongest-ever vehicle emissions standards to force automakers to drastically cut back on the sales of gas-powered cars and boost electric vehicles.
However, the president has walked a fine line to appease climate change activists and Americans struggling with soaring energy prices. He has rebuffed activists’ calls to end fossil fuel drilling on federal lands and prodded oil companies to produce more to blunt high prices at the pump.
In his latest move that infuriated environmentalists and broke a campaign promise, Mr. Biden greenlit the Willow oil project that is expected to produce nearly 629 million barrels of oil from federal lands in Alaska in the coming decades.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.