With a generational tilt towards socialism combined with a culture that demands both jobs and cleaner energy, many Democrats and Independents are falling in line with the progressive Green New Deal. This policy which has its roots in the Green Party going back all the way to 2000, and now has embedded itself in the progressive movement and younger wing of the Democratic Party.
What should you know about this Green New Deal as it starts to get more attention as we get closer to the 2020 Presidential election?
1) It’ll Kill Our Fossil Fuel Industry and Energy Independence
Economist Stephen Moore published an op-ed recently at the Investor’s Business Daily discussing the many problems with the Green New Deal. The biggest and most obvious issue with this progressive plan is that it would destroy our coal and natural gas industry, which obviously didn’t go too well for Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she threatened to put coal country out of work. The plan would place caps and limits on natural resource production harming our energy independence in the long run. Moore points out “competitors like China, India, Russia, and OPEC will replace the U.S. as major producers of cheap coal, oil, and natural gas. Because these countries have much lower environmental standards than we do, the GND could cause global greenhouse gas emissions to rise, not fall.”
2) Let’s Talk About Those Coal Jobs Again
It didn’t go well for Hillary last time as mentioned previously, and with the job loss numbers, it might not get any better for the progressives this time around either. Moore points out an estimated 10 million jobs are tied to the oil, gas and coal industry within the United States. These are 10 million voters alone with families meaning they have an obvious interest in not losing their jobs. It is one thing if the free market replaced these jobs with jobs within the green or renewable energy sector, but this is purely an act of big government picking winners and losers. This plan wouldn’t only result in massive job losses, but would also hike up the price for electricity and other resources thus harming the lower and middle class. Moore states “Under this plan energy prices would rise dramatically, as we see in Europe with $5-a-gallon gasoline. Electric power and home heating costs could easily double as we know from the experience of states like California and New York with 50% renewable energy mandates that are much less onerous than the GND.”
3) Who Has to Pay For This?
Lastly, who will have to pick up for this massive FDR New Deal-esq bill? The 1 percent or the average American taxpayer? Not the billionaires, because they can move their money overseas and use their connections and knowledge to get as many tax breaks out of the plan as possible. This means that the regular consumer is going to pay it all through their taxes and with what they consume.
This progressive plan to save the environment and put people to work sounds good, but the unintended consequences show more jobs will be lost, our economy will spiral down, and the working class American will have to foot the bill. This is another case of central planners intervening in the market with lofty goals that over-promise, and underdeliver.
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