Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rallied Monday night against “middle ground” policies in combating climate change.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders headlined a rally for the liberal Green New Deal in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Sunrise Movement, a group of young climate change activists.
“No middle ground is right,” Ocasio-Cortez said, echoing chants from a crowd of about 1,500 activists at Howard University, the last venue of a nationwide series of 250 town halls hosted by the group.
The “middle ground” reference is a not-so-subtle dig at former Vice President Joe Biden, who was reported to be seeking a climate change agenda more moderate than the Green New Deal in a bid for the support of skeptical groups such as unions.
“I will be damned if the same politicians who refused to act then are going to come back today and say we need a ‘middle-of-the-road’ approach to save our lives,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That is too much for me.”
For two-plus hours, the rally featured a host of liberal speakers attacking Republicans and Democrats who have criticized the Green New Deal for its aggressive approach. The Green New Deal calls for quickly eliminating the use of fossil fuels and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, as well as for a federal jobs guarantee and universal healthcare.
Sanders and a host of other 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have rushed to endorse the concept of the Green New Deal. Biden has not offered a position on it.
[Opinion: The Green New Deal is about power, not the planet]
“You know and I know that the scientific community has been very clear: that is if we do not act boldly and aggressively to transform our global energy system away from fossil fuels within a short few years, there will be irreparable harm done to our planet, and we are united in saying we will not allow that to happen,” Sanders said.
The Sunrise Movement has helped shape the Green New Deal proposal by leading protests in the offices of Democratic leaders, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and calling for more aggressive action. Sunrise has also pressured presidential candidates to pledge to reject donations from fossil fuel interests, as Sanders has.
Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise Movement, said Monday night that the group would lead a major demonstration at the second Democratic presidential debate in Detroit in July to make climate change a central topic. She said the group hopes for a congressional vote on major climate change legislation by 2021, after the 2020 election.
Republicans, meanwhile, took notice of the rally, criticizing Sanders and fellow Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., an original sponsor of the nonbinding Green New Deal resolution, for participating.
“Not a single senator voted in favor of the resolution, not even Sens. Sanders and Markey,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. “It’s remarkable that senators are rallying for legislation they ducked only 7 weeks ago.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders endorsed Sunrise’s proposal, betting that critics would lose out in the elections.
“The reason why you hear constant disinformation about the Green New Deal is because they know how vulnerable they are,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “If it really was just a silly little fairy tale they would have just let it rock. But they know the knowledge and energy that is behind this.”
