Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized former vice president Joe Biden’s climate change plan Wednesday, while praising that of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) as the “gold standard,” the best in the presidential field.
Ocasio-Cortez co-authored the “Green New Deal” earlier this year. It calls for the total elimination of fossil fuels as an energy source in the United States by 2030. (Previously, the most ambitious plan, adopted by California, aimed to do the same by 2045; critics have pointed out that no one is quite sure how the state will achieve that aggressive goal.)
Biden’s plan, released Wednesday morning, calls for fossil fuels to be eliminated by 2050, after spending $1.7 trillion in federal funds and $5 trillion in state, local, and private funds. The former vice president also called for building “small modular nuclear reactors at half the construction cost of today’s reactors” to help replace fossil fuel energy.
But 2050 is too late, Ocasio-Cortez said, according to The Hill. “Scientifically, anything that is less than helping us cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 is going to be too late,” she reportedly said.
Rand Paul clashes with fellow Republican over AI ‘kill switch’ as Senate grapples with ‘Terminator’ fears
Minnesota’s anti-ICE aid fund becomes latest casualty of state’s embarrassing fraud problem
Air Force Secretary Confirms U.S. Now Has Weapons Deployed in Space
22 Blue States Try to Block Trump Rule That Cracks Down on Immigrants Receiving Welfare in Final Hours Before It Takes Effect
Influential conservative group says all hope is not lost for Republicans during midterms — and here’s why
Powerful teachers’ unions share striking link with states struggling to teach kids to read
Trump’s $5K checks could join stack of past unfulfilled promises, former Congress budget chief warns
Idaho prosecutors accuse Bryan Kohberger of ‘fishing’ to find better arguments for bid to withdraw guilty plea
Los Angeles NBC helicopter seen plummeting toward ground in dashcam video
Kamala Harris to Team Up with Radical Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Apparent Sign of Intent
Hyperbolic ‘Hottest Summer Ever’ Headlines Aren’t Meteorological Science
Trump seen reading plans for Kennedy Center ‘DEMOLITION’ during ride on Air Force One
Brandon Johnson’s latest viral moment sends Chicago critics into a frenzy: ‘What the actual F?’
Homeowners in the heart of America’s AI boom are getting an unexpected payoff
Rogue TX Police Dept. Arrests Woman for Criticizing Town’s Water, So State Disbands Entire Dept.
“It’s a start, and I think that what that has shown is a dramatic shift in the right direction, but we need to keep pushing for a plan that is at the scale of the problem.”
Ocasio-Cortez said in January that the world would end in 12 years — i.e. by 2031 — if the U.S. did not change its policy radically. She claimed later that she was not speaking literally. Yet she continues to apply the year 2030 as a litmus test for climate change proposals.
Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill that she prefers Inslee’s plan our of all this that have been introduced thus far: “I do think that Jay Inslee’s plan is a phenomenal blueprint and example of where we need to go. It’s got the scale, the jobs and justice,” she said.
Inslee, who is running a single-issue campaign focused on climate change, aims to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2035, ABC News reported.
Story cited here.
