I am pleased to see that Beto O’Rourke has proposed his own
version of a Green New Deal (summary on candidate website here, LA Times story
here).
As I said in a previous posting (here), I believe that the
overall Green New Deal concept – vigorously attacking climate change through
(1) organizing a massive investment program around green infrastructure and (2)
pricing out carbon, with lots of transitional and equity protections – is a
sound way to go.
Beto’s version is very similar to the AOC/Markey approach,
although with a tighter focus on climate change and fewer “socialist”
components, such as guaranteed jobs (not that that will make it any more
acceptable to the Grim Reaper of the Senate).
The initiative is basically a laundry list of policy
proposals, organized under four broad action statements:
1.
Start Cutting Pollution on Day One and Taking
Executive Actions to Lead on Climate
2.
Mobilize a historic $5 Trillion for Climate
Change with Investment in Infrastructure, Innovation, and Our People and
Communities
3.
Guarantee our Net-Zero Emissions Ambition by
2050
4.
Defend our Communities That Are Preparing for
and Fighting Against Extreme Weather
As with the AOC/Markey version, there are general references
to infrastructure but not much detail on transportation. Here are the major transportation-related bullets:
·
Adopt a policy of “setting a trajectory to
rapidly accelerate the adoption of zero-emission vehicles,”
·
“Transportation grants that cut commutes,
crashes, and carbon pollution — all while reducing the costs paid by people and
communities and boosting access to public transit,”
·
Adoption of a “legally enforceable standard” for
phasing out GHG emissions, including a “clear price signal” (presumably pricing
carbon through cap-and-trade or similar mechanism), and
·
“Advancing consumer choice and market
competition in electricity and transportation” (not sure what this means).
It doesn’t bother me that there is detail missing at this
point (my suggestions for starting to fill in the blanks for transportation are
in my previous post here). What’s
important is that Beto is endorsing a bold program. This also leads me to think that some sort of bold climate
change initiative is going to become a standard policy component of every major
Democratic campaign (I hold out no hope for the Republicans at this point). An important step forward!
