Ocasio-Cortez starts to fill in details of ‘Green New Deal’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) started to fill in details on her proposed “Green New Deal” in a Monday email to colleagues obtained by Bloomberg.

The contents of bill, which is soon to be introduced by Ocasio-Cortez in the House and by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate, have remained a mystery, though the idea of addressing climate change while creating new jobs has widespread support.

{mosads}“Next week, we plan to release a resolution that outlines the scope and scale of the Green New Deal,” Ocasio-Cortez said in the letter to her colleagues. “In it, we call for a national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not seen since World War II.”

The letter set reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions “through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” creating millions of “good, high-wage jobs” while ensuring prosperity and economic security for all, and investment in infrastructure and industry as goals of the policy.

The bill will include calls for clean air and water, climate resiliency, healthy food, access to nature and “a sustainable environment for all for generations to come,” according to Bloomberg.

The Green New Deal will also “promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to frontline and vulnerable communities.”

Ocasio-Cortez said the goals will be accomplished through a 10-year plan of industrial and infrastructure projects.

Top Democrats including 2020 White House contenders Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.) have shown support for the initiative.

More than 40 other progressive lawmakers back it as well.

Republicans have opposed the Green New Deal for its cost, which some estimates put at as high as $7 trillion.