Kamala Harris endorses Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Monday endorsed the “Green New Deal,” a proposal that sets a goal of getting 100 percent of U.S. electricity from renewable energy.

“I support a Green New Deal,” she said during a CNN town hall in Iowa. 

“Climate change is an existential threat to us, and we have got to deal with the reality of it,” she added.

Harris, who hadn’t previously thrown her support behind the proposal popularized by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), doubled down on the endorsement in a tweet Monday night following her remark at the town hall.

“I support a Green New Deal. Climate change is an existential threat to all of us, and we have got to deal with the reality of it,” she tweeted.

“I support a Green New Deal … Climate change is an existential threat to us and we have got to deal with the reality of it,” Kamala Harris says. #HarrisTownHall https://t.co/0EMGUsQFut pic.twitter.com/HJIG0HFQDr

— CNN (@CNN) January 29, 2019

I support a Green New Deal. Climate change is an existential threat to all of us, and we have got to deal with the reality of it.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 29, 2019

{mosads}Harris became the latest high-profile Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate to indicate some level of support for the Green New Deal, joining Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as well as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.

Harris, Gillibrand, Warren and Castro are also each running or exploring a run for president.

The Green New Deal has attracted the support of a number of progressives. Last year, Ocasio-Cortez proposed that House Democrats create a select committee for a Green New Deal. She has pushed for such goals in the new Congress along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

“I think that the fact that we have policymakers who are in the pockets of big oil and big coal don’t fully appreciate the fact that we are looking at something that is presenting an existential threat to our country,” Harris said.

“And, listen, all children need to be able to breathe clean air and drink clean water, and we’ve got to have a commitment to a policy that will allow that to happen for ourselves and our children and our grandchildren. And right now we don’t,” she added.