Green New Deal
Americans are ready for a rapid transition to a clean energy economy
October 2018 / Via Vox
With the federal government AWOL on climate change, another state steps up.
With President Donald Trump’s administration dismantling federal climate policy as fast as it can, all eyes have turned to the states. As last month’s Global Climate Action Summit in California illustrated, state leaders are stepping forward with big promises and inspirational rhetoric, attempting to rally the domestic troops, build some momentum, and signal to the world that the US isn’t a lost cause.
Washington I-1631
1631 is a fee. That’s not just semantics — in Washington, it matters. A tax goes into general revenue (even if it is offset by tax cuts). All the revenue from a fee must be devoted to the purpose of the fee.
Of the 1631 revenue:
- 70 percent would go to “clean air and clean energy.” 15 percent of that would go specifically to easing the burden on low-income energy consumers. $12 million would go to a fund that helps ease fossil fuel workers transition out of the industry.
- 25 percent would go to “clean water and healthy forests,” increasing the resilience of the state’s natural ecosystems to climate change.
- 5 percent would go to “healthy communities,” assisting (especially rural) communities impacted by climate change.
Re: the initiative's fees ... beginning with a carbon tax, estimated to raise an average of about $900 million per year even starting with a low-end tax rate of $15 per ton of carbon.
An analysis by economist Robert Pollin and colleagues at the Political Economy Research Institute concluded that “clean energy investments in Washington State that would be sufficient to put the state on a true climate stabilization trajectory will generate about 40,000 jobs per year within the state.”
File:Green New Deal - WashingtonState 12-23-17.pdf
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/Green_New_Deal_-_WashingtonState_12-23-17.pdf
The result of I-1631 would be a rolling wave of investments across the state, to the tune of around a billion dollars a year, for decades to come. Here is I-1631 map showing the types of local investments that could be funded by carbon revenue:
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Political Policies Call for a Green New Deal
California 'Out in Front'
California out in front in a Green future
California moves to the front with green initiatives
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Governor_Jerry_Brown
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Progressive candidates campaign on green politics and eco-nomics
A sustainable and just environmental plan is not only good policy, it’s good politics
Origins of the political term "Green New Deal":
In 2008 Barack Obama added a Green New Deal to his platform.
When he took office in January 2009 and he inherited what many called the weakest American economy since the Great Depression. Facing the challenge, he made energy the centerpiece of his economic recovery plan. In one bold move, President Obama launched what was called the “Green New Deal.”
In 2009, the United Nations drafted a report calling for a Global Green New Deal to focus government stimulus on renewable energy projects.
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Support for a Green New Deal
Kevin de León / California
Today, our economy is creating less of the jobs we need to keep our country standing strong, and more of the greenhouse gases that will bring our planet to its knees. In California, we've been working on policies that cut emissions, boost renewable energy production, and – most importantly – create stable, high-paying jobs with meaning. We can get the U.S. on the right track, too, but we won’t get there by keeping coal companies on life support, gutting the EPA, and leaving communities of color the doctor’s bills that fossil fuel production always brings. And we can’t get there on the freeways we built in the 1950’s.
That’s why I’m calling for a Green New Deal. We need a comprehensive plan to restore the infrastructure that brings our country together, and to do it sustainably, in a way that totally caps carbon emissions and sets our nation on track to consume only renewable energy by 2045. Doing so will reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and foreign countries, shore up our national security, and we know it will create jobs: today, California’s clean energy sector supports ten times the jobs that the entire nation’s coal industry does. A Green New Deal will make our country safer and more self-sufficient, and it will create jobs that cannot be outsourced.
I wrote SB 350, the law that requires fifty percent of the Golden State’s energy consumption must be renewable by 2030, and I stared down Big Oil to get it passed. Today, the landmark renewable energy commitments that I shepherded to safe passage have pushed California to meet that goal years in advance and created thousands of green jobs for hardworking Californians. Now, we're in the home stretch of passing a bill to commit California to 100% renewables by 2045. Those accomplishments, and the $5.4 billion we’ll invest in new infrastructure this decade are proof positive that environmental stewardship and astounding economic growth go hand in hand. We can build an economy that provides a fair shot at the dignity of a good-paying job for every working family, in a way ensures a cleaner, greener future for the next generation.
A Green New Deal can be more than a pie-in-the-sky ideal. With the right Congress, we can write it into reality.
- Kevin de León (@kdeleon)
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