Democrats reintroduce Green New Deal in Congress

Adam Houser April 24th, 2023 32 Comments @ CFACT

Congressional Democrats have reintroduced the Green New Deal in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The formal introduction date comes on the four-year anniversary of the introduction of the original Green New Deal.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sponsors the piece of legislation in the House, while Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) sponsors the bill in the Senate.

“[The sponsors] 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 climate activists may be patting themselves on the back over influencing the Biden Administration to pursue more aggressive climate policy, Republican officials and conservative grassroots organizations aren’t exactly upset with the reintroduction of the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal has provided right-leaning pundits and elected officials with an ideal political punching bag on climate change issues.

Indeed, the question must be raised whether, in the grand political balance, more climate gains have been achieved by influencing the Biden Administration versus ostracizing independent voters with some of the more radical policies espoused in the Green New Deal.

This is a political reality that seems to be recognized by the Biden Administration, as despite some of the policy wins Biden has handed the climate wing of his party, he has also made some policy moves highly criticized by climate activists.

According to the Washington Times:

“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.”

The Washington Times article can be read in full here.

• Adam Houser

  Adam Houser coordinates student leaders as National Director of CFACT's collegians program and writes on issues of climate and energy.