Democrats Admit ‘The Green New Deal Is In The DNA Of This’ Budget

Green New Deal Sponsors Proclaim ‘The Green New Deal Is In The DNA Of This Green Budget Resolution,’ ‘It’s A Way Of Accomplishing Many Of The Goals Of The Green New Deal’ And Therefore ‘An Enormous Progressive Victory’

MSNBC’s MEHDI HASAN: “And what you’re describing there, some of the measures in that budget reconciliation, they sound like measures that were in the Green New Deal that you were one of the architects of. Is that something you’re allowed to say? Or are you worried that, if you say that, Republicans lose their mind because they’ve so successfully demonized a Green New Deal as, somehow, bad on the right?”
SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA), Green New Deal Sponsor: “No, without question, the Green New Deal is in the DNA of this green budget resolution. All of the things that are in, we talked about in the Green New Deal. Now, we have to go even further, in the years ahead.” (MSNBC, 08/09/2021)

MARKEY: “The Biden Administration is including climate action, environmental justice, and the care economy in its recovery plans. That’s the DNA of the Green New Deal that we introduced.” (Sen. Markey, Press Conference, 4/20/2021)

• MARKEY: “It’s a way of accomplishing many of the goals of the Green New Deal… to go big and bold to match the urgency of the moment.” (“Markey And Progressive Democrats See Infrastructure Bill As A Way To Accomplish Green New Deal Goals,” The Boston Globe, 3/28/2021)

CNN’s DON LEMON: “[T]he $3.5 trillion spending proposal from Democrats, I know that you would prefer a larger bill but you’re calling it a progressive victory. Why is that?”
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY), Green New Deal Sponsor: “I think it absolutely is a progressive victory and the reason for that is because if you look at the top lines of this bill, the expansion of Medicare to include vision, health care and dental, when you include the Civilian Climate Corps, which is a major provision that I introduced along with Senator Markey two years ago as outlined in the Green New Deal…. All of that is due to the progressive victory. And that’s why I think it’s a progressive, an enormous progressive victory.” (CNN, 7/19/2021)

THE NEW YORK TIMES: “[President Biden’s] advisers are preparing a set of proposals intended to reshape the U.S. economy and other parts of American life…. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Times’s Lisa Friedman that she was encouraged by what she had heard about the infrastructure policies and likened them to her Green New Deal plan.” (“Biden’s Big Plan,” The New York Times, 3/23/2021)

• OCASIO-CORTEZ: “One of the big goals we had when we introduced the Green New Deal was to show how people thought about climate change from being a billion dollar problem to a trillion-dollar opportunity…. This infrastructure package generally seems to be shaping up in that kind of framework.” (“Biden’s Big Plan,” The New York Times, 3/23/2021)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): “The Biden administration will seek big climate elements in the infrastructure bill, to the point where it might even be called a climate infrastructure bill.” (“Markey And Progressive Democrats See Infrastructure Bill As A Way To Accomplish Green New Deal Goals,” The Boston Globe, 3/28/2021)

• WHITEHOUSE: “The plan is to get this bill passed and focus on the reconciliation package next. That’s where the big climate provisions will be.” (Sen. Whitehouse, @SenWhitehouse, Twitter, 8/07/2021)

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION PETE BUTTIGIEG: “I’ve heard it said that the American Jobs Plan should be about roads and bridges but should not address climate change…. The truth is that every infrastructure decision is already, inevitably, a climate decision as well. Our choices on roads, bridges and other infrastructure must recognize and reduce the very real threat that climate change poses to American lives and livelihoods.” (U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing, 4/20/2021)

• MARKEY: “The lesson I learned was that climate needs to inform and be included in every legislative package, not separate and put into a silo.” (“Markey And Progressive Democrats See Infrastructure Bill As A Way To Accomplish Green New Deal Goals,” The Boston Globe, 3/28/2021)

Democrats On The Green New Deal: ‘It’s Not A Messaging Bill,’ ‘You Cannot Go Too Far On The Issue Of Climate Change,’ ‘We Cannot Compromise,’ ‘Give Us Some Of That Socialism’

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): “Well, I mean, first and foremost, this is legislation. It’s not a messaging bill. … So when it comes to are we going to be put on the spot, to me, the greatest risk is doing nothing on climate or doing too little. That is a greater political risk…” (Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Press Conference, 4/20/2021)

THE VIEW’S SUNNY HOSTIN: “Does the Green New Deal go too far?”
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): “No. You cannot go too far on the issue of climate change.” (“Sanders Says Green New Deal Doesn’t Go Too Far: You Can’t Go ‘Too Far’ on Climate Change,” Mediaite, 3/01/2019)

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): “They call the Green New Deal pie in the sky. They call it socialism! … So here’s what I say for wind and solar and all electric vehicles and clean energy: give us some of that socialism …” (Justice Democrats, @justicedems, Twitter, 5/14/2019)

• MARKEY: “Intersectional is foundational. The power of the wind, the power of the sun to be matched by the power of the people. It is possible to find middle ground in many areas of politics, I know because I have done it, but we cannot compromise away math or morality. We cannot compromise on science, policies will take steps to save the planet or they will not. We cannot compromise on justice, policies are equitable or they are not. We cannot compromise on the fate of our planet and the fate of human civilization.” (Sen. Markey, Press Conference, 4/20/2021)

CNN’s ANDERSON COOPER: “You’re not saying that you support everything in the original Green New Deal. Do you think it goes too far? Is it unrealistic, promising too much?”
JOE BIDEN: “No, it’s not…. And so the idea -- I think the Green New Deal deserves an enormous amount of credit for bringing this to a head in a way that it hasn’t been before. It hasn’t been. But the reason -- I don’t know, I’m not opposed to the Green New Deal. What I did was went, I thought, beyond -- at least in more detail what the Green New Deal is calling for, how to do the things we need to do, when they have to be done, how quickly we should move, how much we should invest, et cetera.” (CNN Town Hall, 9/04/2019)

FLASHBACK: Green New Deal Supporters Admit, ‘We Really Think Of It As A How-Do-You-Change-The-Entire-Economy Thing,’ ‘A New, All-Encompassing Domestic Agenda’

SAIKAT CHAKRABARTI, Former Chief of Staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY): “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all…. Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.” (“AOC’s Chief of Change,” The Washington Post Magazine, 7/10/2019)

“New Consensus aims to be the policy quarterback for the Green New Deal. It wants to combine ideas from dozens of fields—including economics, sociology, ecology, and climate science—to write a new, all-encompassing domestic agenda. It promotes industrial policy, a school of thought that says a country should invest public dollars in its high-tech manufacturing capacity to flourish.” (“The Think Tank Struggling to Write the Green New Deal,” The Atlantic, 6/12/2019)

• “New Consensus is dreaming bigger even as it plans the next six months of research. [New Consensus executive director Demond] Drummer ultimately conceives of the Green New Deal as far more than a climate policy. It is a governing domestic agenda, he said, a chance to ‘see the elephant whole.’” (“The Think Tank Struggling to Write the Green New Deal,” The Atlantic, 6/12/2019)

Biden’s Green New Deal Politics Are Already Costing Americans Jobs

On His First Day In Office, President Biden Cancelled The Keystone XL Pipeline, ‘The Second Time A Democratic Administration Has Scuttled The $8 Billion Project In Less Than A Decade’

“The Canadian pipeline company that had long sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline announced [in June] that it had terminated the embattled project, which would have carried petroleum from Canadian tar sands to Nebraska. The announcement was the death knell for a project that had been on life support since President Biden’s first day in office and had been stalled by legal battles for years before that, despite support from the Trump administration.” (“The Keystone XL Pipeline Project Has Been Terminated,” The New York Times, 6/09/2021)

“President Joe Biden formally announced on [January 20^th] he was revoking a key permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the second time a Democratic administration has scuttled the $8 billion project in less than a decade. Biden’s action was part of a series of executive orders on his first day in office …” (“Biden Kills Keystone XL Permit, Again,” Politico, 1/20/2021)

• “Keystone XL has been mired in court challenges and left in limbo by shifting U.S. political leadership since it was initially proposed in 2008.” (“Keystone XL Oil Project Abandoned by Developer,” The Wall Street Journal, 6/09/2021)

Biden’s Ideologically Driven Decision Eliminated 1,000 Positions As Laid-Off Pipeline Workers Were Left To Lament, ‘They Are Taking My Jobs Away’

“In an email to staff [in January] obtained by POLITICO, Keystone XL chief Richard Prior said the permit denial would force the company to cut more than 1,000 positions. ‘Over 1,000 positions will be eliminated in the coming weeks, the majority of these unionized workers representing the building trades,’ he wrote.” (“Biden Kills Keystone XL Permit, Again,” Politico, 1/20/2021)

“The cancellation of Keystone XL not only ended the billion-dollar pipe dream for the oil industry, but it also resulted in the loss of jobs— and economic opportunities— for thousands of workers. That ripple effect fell on Lynn Allen, who was laid off from the Keystone XL pipeline project following President Biden’s announcement. Allen, a father of three, had been working as a welder for 34 years. ‘I got boys to raise, boys to put through college and, you know what, they are taking my jobs away and I don’t expect the government to pay my way in life,’ Allen told FOX Business.” (“Biden’s Keystone XL Pipeline Cancellation Leaves Laid-Off Workers Begging For Answers: ‘They Are Taking My Jobs Away,’” Fox Business, 2/05/2021)

• “[Ron] Berringer, 60, is a union steward from Clarinda, Iowa, who has worked on pipelines for decades across seven states — just like his father before him and his three brothers today…. The sense of community, plus good benefits and wages, are what make pipeline work so appealing. Berringer said he’s scheduled to work six days a week, ten hours a day, meaning there’s the constant promise of twenty hours of overtime. He calls it the best job he ever had — his ‘bread and butter.’ Without that financial boost, Berringer says his future looks ‘gloomy.’ He can no longer plan on replacing his pickup truck, which has logged 450,000 miles building pipelines. And he’ll have to reduce the financial help he’s used to sending his two adult daughters. Before the pipeline construction was halted, Berringer said friends inside and outside his union, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 1140 in Omaha, approached him ‘daily’ to ask about  working on Keystone. He said people were often confused about the pipeline’s fate because construction stopped and started as a result of Obama and Trump executive orders.” (“‘It Makes You Want To Give Up.’ Keystone Workers Feel Left Behind By Biden Executive Orders,” CBS News, 2/04/2021)

• “To these workers, pipelining is more than a livelihood. As a member of LiUNA Local 620, Tyler Noel, 33, said the bonds he’s forged working on pipelines for thirteen years is ‘the only thing I’ve got right now.’ Noel is based in Aberdeen, South Dakota, but spent the last five and a half months of 2020 working on Keystone, about 215 miles away in Murdo, South Dakota. Pipeline laborers relocate for long periods of time during construction, often living in local motels or hauling their own campers…. Without the promise of Keystone, Noel finds himself at a ‘crossroads.’ Work in Murdo ended in December. He has not received a stimulus check. As a result, Noel has been forced to refinance his truck and knows others who have refinanced their homes…. Noel is worried about the possibility that the Biden administration could revoke other pipeline opportunities, especially since he’ll need to accrue more hours on the job in order to be eligible for his pension. ’Anything that was coming in the next few months was supposed to be Keystone,’ he said. ‘If I hadn’t saved my money through the years I would really be in a bind. But I’d say I’ve got at least three months, then I’m gonna have to do something.’” (“‘It Makes You Want To Give Up.’ Keystone Workers Feel Left Behind By Biden Executive Orders,” CBS News, 2/04/2021)

• “Climate Envoy John Kerry told reporters that workers in the oil and gas industry ‘can be the people who go to work to make the solar panels.’ But Berringer and Noel aren’t convinced. Both said their best hope is to find work maintaining existing pipelines. Berringer, who is now working at a power plant in Omaha, says he’s worked on wind turbine installation in the past and found the work to be ‘piddly’ and less satisfying because it doesn’t offer the same overtime benefits as pipeline work…. For Noel, the idea of transitioning from his long-practiced trade to a new one is ‘just crazy.’ ‘It’s easy for welders,’ he said. ‘I’m a foreman. My trade is in labor. The money is so much better running a crew. I wouldn’t be anywhere near that doing a wind turbine, which I’ve never done.’” (“‘It Makes You Want To Give Up.’ Keystone Workers Feel Left Behind By Biden Executive Orders,” CBS News, 2/04/2021)