A pushback against the Green New Deal
occasionally comes from the Left. That’s what we got from Tom Moran for the New
Jersey Star-Ledger. In a surprisingly candid and forceful challenge to AOC and
her allies, Moran, calling the GND “a primal scream, not a political strategy,”
writes in Where
the Green New Deal goes wrong:
In the name of fighting climate change, Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez wants to give every American a good job, health insurance, paid
vacations, and affordable housing.
And if you think that’s a smart strategy, ask yourself this: Why
are Republicans overjoyed? Why is Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell so eager to post the
resolution for a vote?
The reason is that Republicans know this resolution will scare the
hell out of centrist voters who may be worried about climate change, but don’t
want that entire menu of add-ons.
Granted, Moran’s opposition is pragmatic, not
because he believes it’s wrong for government to “give” all those goodies. And
it’s not that the Star-Ledger has abandoned its “climate crisis” bonafides.
Moran writes:
Do we need a Green New Deal? Absolutely.
The United Nations recently examined 6,000 studies on climate and
concluded that we must cut carbon emissions in half within 15 years if we hope
to stave off calamity.
He’s referring to the U.N.’s 2018 IPCC
Special Report on Global Warming,
which I examined in New
U.N. Study Shows Climate Catastrophists Getting More Open About their
Totalitarian Designs. But Moran makes a
crucial point:
But even on climate policy, this resolution falls short. The most
important policy change, most experts agree, is to increase the costs of
burning carbon, either through a tax on emissions or a cap-and-trade system.
That would make solar and wind power more competitive, and fuel green
investments in everything from electric cars to thermal windows.
So it is disappointing, even
bizarre, that the Green New Deal punts on this point, making no mention of a
carbon tax. It is also silent on nuclear power, America’s single largest
source of carbon-free electricity.
A carbon tax would be far less intrusive to our
lives than the controls AOC demands, although I don’t support it. But the
highlighted portion is what got my attention. I left these comments:
The S-L is right to highlight the gigantic hole
in the “Green New Deal”--“It is also silent on nuclear power, America’s single
largest source of carbon-free electricity”. Nuclear power is the only
carbon-free energy source capable of entirely replacing fossil fuels in
electricity generation without “a complete realignment of the U.S. economy.”
That’s exactly why the GND ignores it.
I’m not buying the climate catastrophism
scenario. There is a huge body of independent objective research to refute the
government climate establishment. The U.N. report is a political document
calling for government-imposed “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes
in all aspects of society” to fight climate change and “eradicate poverty,” a
totalitarian socialist agenda if there ever was one. The S-L is also right on
another point: The GND echoes the U.N., smuggling in a socialist agenda wrapped
in climate panic, which AOC, the self-described “radical for socialism,” has
openly said is the real goal of her GND. "We can use the transition to 100
percent renewable energy as the vehicle to establish economic, racial and
social justice in America," she declared.
Tremendous advances in nuclear technology has
occurred in recent years. If carbon-free energy is the goal, nuclear is the
most practical and humane alternative to fossil fuels. We don’t need a “10-year
national mobilization [to] transform the U.S. economy to combat climate
change.” The GND is a totalitarian document that should be recognized and
outright rejected as the threat to freedom and prosperity that it is.
Related Reading:
The
Real Reason They Hate Nuclear Is Because It Means We Don't Need Renewables--Michael Shellenberger
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