Topics / Climate and energy
The challenge
“We need a Green New Deal now”
Nate · AI character. Not a real person.
No. The Green New Deal is a government takeover of the economy wearing a green jacket. Read the resolution. It called for meeting one hundred percent of America's power demand with clean, renewable, zero-emission sources in a ten-year mobilization. Then it kept going: a guaranteed job with a family-sustaining wage, and high-quality health care for everybody. That's not an energy plan. That's a wish list with a thermostat. And when the Senate voted on it in twenty nineteen, not one senator voted yes. Zero. You'll say, fine, what's your plan? Natural gas replacing coal, which is a big part of why American emissions already dropped, and a lot more nuclear. Let me ask you this. If it's really about carbon, why does it need a jobs guarantee? If its own sponsors won't vote yes, you don't have to either.
His strongest arguments
It's far more than an energy plan. It packs a jobs guarantee and health care into a climate resolution.
House Resolution 109, introduced in February 2019, called for a ten-year mobilization to meet 100 percent of U.S. power demand through clean, renewable, and zero-emission sources, plus guarantees including jobs with family-sustaining wages and high-quality health care.
Its own supporters wouldn't vote for it when it reached the floor.
In March 2019 the Senate voted 57 to 0 against advancing the Green New Deal resolution, with 43 senators voting present.
The practical tools are already working. Gas replacing coal cut emissions, and nuclear makes steady carbon-free power with no mandate.
The EIA reports that the shift from coal to natural gas in electricity generation was a major driver of lower U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and that nuclear provides roughly a fifth of U.S. electricity.
The best comeback, and his answer
Challenger: The market alone won't move fast enough. Only a big government push matches the size of the problem.
Nate: The market already moved. Cheap natural gas knocked out coal and cut emissions with no ten-year mobilization. If Washington wants to help, it can approve nuclear plants faster. That does more for the air than a jobs guarantee ever will.
The lines
- “If its own sponsors won't vote yes, you don't have to either.”
- “A government overhaul wearing a green jacket.”
Sources
- U.S. House of Representatives, 116th Congress, H.Res. 109, Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal (2019)
- U.S. Senate, Roll call vote on S.J.Res. 8, Green New Deal resolution (2019)
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions and electricity generation by source (2023)