Imagine a world where a majority of Americans earn a living wage working jobs that don’t destroy the planet, where climate change policy is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and where Republicans pay dearly for resisting the society-wide shift. Clearly, this is not our current reality. But talk is growing on the left about a policy that could transform the United States economy, along with the political narrative on climate action. That policy, which includes moving to 100 percent clean energy in ten years, is known as the “Green New Deal.” According to supporters, the Green New Deal would guarantee a government-funded green job – such as installing solar panels or wind turbines, making buildings more energy-efficient, or removing lead from schools – for any American who wants one.The concept of a massive stimulus package capable of shifting the United States off fossil fuels is not exactly new. In 2007, Pulitzer-prize winning author and journalist Thomas Friedman called for such a policy, and it was the logic of Barack Obama’s green stimulus package. But on November 13, momentum shot through the roof when over 200 activists with the youth-led Sunrise Movement flooded the offices of House Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi demanding that she make the policy a central Democratic priority. Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up, a move that attracted mainstream interest – and she has since become the forefront of the movement for a Green New Deal. “We would put a lot of people to work… that is what this is about,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday. “This proposal is just over two weeks old and we’ve already seen it gain a lot of traction,” says Stephen O’Hanlon, a Sunrise organizer. “Dozens of [Congress] members are talking to us and are interested in the proposal.” On November 30, Ocasio-Cortez and eight other representatives held a press conference calling for House Democrats to convene a select committee on a green new deal, and dozens of environmental, racial justice, and labor groups are now supporting the idea. When some Democrats began announcing their support earlier this spring for a federal jobs guarantee, Sean McElwee, co-founder of a progressive think tank called Data For Progress,asked the data analytics firm Civis Analytics to do some polling on it. About 52 percent of respondents supported the policy, while 29 percent opposed. “This is one of the most popular issues we’ve ever polled,” David Shor, a senior data scientist at Civic Analytics said at the time. Later this year, Data for Progress did its own polling and found a green jobs guarantee increased the intensity of enthusiastic 2018 voters: 55 percent said they’re more likely to vote for a candidate who runs on it.The likelihood that a federal green new deal will be passed anytime soon is slim. President Donald Trump, along with most Republicans, denies the reality of climate change. But people aren’t excited about a green new deal because it will immediately result in legislation—they’re inspired by the progressive vision it offers.Green jobs aren’t only for people in progressive coastal cities. They can also be appealing to rural regions such as central Appalachia. In recent years, US energy markets have moved away from coal in favor of natural gas, causing coal company bankruptcies and mine closures in Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. According to a report published by Appalachian Voices, over 51,000 people have lost their jobs since 2011. To oppose the green new deal, the logic goes, Republicans have to be not just against climate change solutions, but against jobs. For decades, Republicans have successfully slowed aggressive action on climate change with a simple but effective message: It will screw the economy. But the Green New Deal takes this argument off the table – it’s called an economic stimulus package for a reason. Supposing that a Democratic administration in 2021 or 2022, were to bring in a green new deal that showed tangible benefits to people in the Bay Area, central Appalachia, New York City, and everywhere
in between – it could become incredibly popular.
