Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Green New Deal Must Grow Up Fast To Influence Bills Congress is Already Writing


Paul Bledsoe, forbes.com


Environmental activists occupy the office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, the speaker-designate for the new Congress, as they try to pressure Democratic support for a sweeping agenda to fight climate change, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Excerpt:
Little noticed in the media circus surrounding the mere introduction of a non-binding Congressional resolution on the Green New Deal was the deletion of much-criticized and plainly unachievable mandates contained in previous GND versions. ...

In fact, the more extreme provisions in the GND have served largely to provide Trump and other Republican anti-climate action forces with irresistible political fodder. Republicans hope to scare the American people into opposing sensible climate actions by invoking GND extremism ...

Happily, there is no need to eliminate fossil fuels in the next decade or require only renewable energy or guarantee public sector jobs to meet our climate goals. Instead, a host of well-known policies that mainstream Democrats can pass through key Committees and the full House would show the path for the U.S. to meet the goal of zero net emissions by 2045, well before the 2050 deadline called for in the resolution and urged by leading scientists. These policies include: ...
a crash public diplomacy [JB emphasis] effort to regain momentum for global de-carbonization in other major nations ...

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