February 1, 2019

The announcement last month of a proposal for a new nationwide comprehensive energy policy seemed interesting at first glance but later hit with a thud once the details were disclosed. Modeled after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal in name only, a group of self proclaimed socialists and socialist leaning members of Congress have called for the transformation of America's energy system. Their proposal if enacted would not only cost the American taxpayer trillions of dollars, it would eliminate millions of related energy jobs, destroy various sectors of the economy and would result in idling one of the greatest economic engines in all of the world.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-NY who is one of the primary backers of the “Green New Deal” is seeking to transform the United States from a fossil fuel economy to an economy based on 100% renewable energy sources within ten years or by 2030. This would include all necessary "upgrades" to residential homes and businesses to implement the transformation. The plan includes more than energy. It also includes socialist ideas such as free college education, a single payer health care system, a federal jobs guarantee, guaranteed "basic income" and guaranteed housing. This policy proposal is nothing new but rather a repackaged plan that covers all socialist delusions of grandeur. The last major push for a Green Deal came from Presidential candidate Jill Stein in 2016. The original idea came from NY Times opinion writer Thomas L Freidmen and was later adopted by the Green Party in 2006 according to their website.

One bizarre element of the plan calls for the elimination of all air travel which would be replaced by train travel as the primary mode of transportation not seen since the 1950's. Even so, what are we to make of California's cancellation of its speed train as being too costly? As to overseas travel, travel by ship would be the only other viable alternative. The plan calls for an end to fossil fuel extraction including natural gas, a complete halt to any further investment in fossil fuels and the imposition of a green house gas tax or fee system to those responsible for the pollution yet it does not specify who are the responsible parties. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez claims that the world will end in twelve years if we fail to act. She also questioned whether people should have children as it contributes to climate change. 

The blueprint to pay for the transition is untenable as it calls for cutting the defense budget by over fifty percent and asserts that the plan would pay for itself by lower healthcare costs resulting from the prevention of fossil fuel related illnesses. Cost estimates for the New Green Deal are in the trillions. The American Action Forum estimates the cost would run between $53 and $93 trillion dollars over a ten year period to fully implement the plan. Backers of the plan even claim that it will lower electrical costs as compared to relying on fossil fuels but provide no information or data to back up their claim. Energy is to be treated as a "human right".

A review of those entities that support the plan such as the International Socialists, Socialist Project, Socialist Caucus of Canada’s New Democratic Party, and the Working Families Party of New York hardly come as a surprise. All of the elements of the Green New Deal reflect hard core socialism as its worst. The Sunrise Movement which is also supporting the plan lists eighty nine US House members and eleven Senate members who support the plan. This is not the first time that America has faced this trend. In the 1930's, internal socialist and communist movements gained steam only to be repudiated in the course of the second world war.

While no one actually opposes "clean energy" and the need to be good stewards of our environment, this plan goes well beyond that . It is a call to fundamentally change the economic and political system of the United States from a free Republic with a capitalist economic system to a socialist state with complete government control. Looking to history, communism and socialism are failed forms of government where everyone is economically equal and everyone has nothing. It is where other evils have incubated which have lead to death and economic disaster. Just ask the people of Venezuela or  ask any of the millions of people who have immigrated to the United States for freedom. Yes to freedom, no to the New Green Deal.