Congressional Democrats on Thursday reintroduced the “Green New Deal” resolution and published a new guidance aimed at shaping the billions of dollars in clean energy spending under the Inflation Reduction Act, in an effort to breathe new life into their ambitious climate goals.
The authors of the original Green New Deal resolution, Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), said their goals have changed in the four years since they introduced the lofty plan in 2019.
They acknowledged that the federal government has made major strides on renewable energy and clean energy spending, largely through last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included $369 billion aimed at boosting clean energy.
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That’s where the new “Implementation Guide” comes in. The 94-page document, published yesterday, seeks to help ensure the federal government is spending the billions of clean energy measures in a way that aligns with that lawmakers described as the “core values” of the Green New Deal.
“We’re hoping that this guide will provide cities, states, tribes, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals with the tools to take full advantage of what is in here,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a press conference outside the Capitol on Thursday.
Markey also joined Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to introduce the “Green New Deal for Health,” new legislation that will enable the healthcare system to respond to climate disasters and provide aid to the people and communities affected.
“We have a consensus that when there are natural disasters, when there are storms, we need the government to act,” Khanna said.
“You don’t have to even understand all the climate science to say that people should have healthcare when you have climate adverse events. And that’s all this is,” he added.
The revived Green New Deal resolution is essentially the same as the 2019 version, and won’t pass in the Republican-led House.
But Markey and Ocasio-Cortez made clear they do not see the IRA as it stands today as going far enough on fighting climate change.
Though it was never intended to “replace” the Green New Deal, which was more a declaration of progressive principles than an actual legislative text, the IRA is the biggest federal investment in clean energy and renewable energy spending in U.S. history.
Still, much daylight remains between the two proposals.
The IRA does not invest nearly the same amount of money as the Green New Deal had sought for racial injustice — including providing low-income communities with access to cleaner air and water, building upgrades to protect against asbestos or lead exposure, and a requirement that workers be paid family-sustaining wages.
Similar to the IRA, that resolution also called for an overhaul of U.S. transportation system to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but unlike the IRA, it sought to do so largely by investing more in systems of public transportation and high-speed rails.
Unofficial estimates suggested that the proposal could have cost around $1 trillion in federal spending.
The IRA, meanwhile, focuses more closely on incentivizing clean energy investments for consumers and project developers alike and developing a domestic supply chain for electric vehicle batteries and critical minerals.
Still, supporters of the Green New Deal stressed that today’s reintroduction was just a first step, stressing they remain devoted to their loftier climate goals.
“In the four years since we first introduced the Green New Deal, the tides of our movement have risen and lifted climate action to the top of the national agenda,” Markey said in a statement.
“We have demonstrated that our movement is a potent political force, and in the run-up to the 2024 elections, we will direct this power to demanding solutions to the intersectional crises Congress has yet to address: in health care, child care, schools, housing, transit, labor, and economic and racial justice,” he added.
The presser also served as a sort of victory lap for lawmakers, who touted the original effort as the spark that helped ignite a broader grassroots movement for climate change.
Green New Deal Network Director Kaniela Ing told reporters Thursday that the IRA “was the Green New Deal, phase one.”
“The Green New Deal is a 10-year project,” he added. “Phase two is about to begin.”
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“The core tenets of the Green New Deal four years ago were considered unrealistic,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that they have now been enacted.
“Today’s reintroduction marks the beginning of that process — of strengthening and broadening our coalition and of laying the policy groundwork for the next fight,” she said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article confused the resolution introduced by Markey and Ocasio-Cortez and the separate implementation guide. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.