Ilhan Omar Joins Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Push For “Green New Deal”

Congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar is joining another newly-elected congresswoman, Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in pushing for a Green New Deal.

Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal proposal, the 21st century take on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, pairs environmentalism with progressive economic proposals to “make prosperity, wealth, and economic security available to everyone.”

“The select committee shall have authority to develop a detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan … for the transition of the United States economy to become carbon neutral and to significantly draw down and capture greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and oceans and to promote economic and environmental justice and equality,” Ocasio-Cortez’s website reads.

The proposal includes a new select committee in the House of Representatives aimed at tackling assembling the Green New Deal. The environmental provisions in the proposal includes switching the national power generation over to 100 percent renewable sources, decarbonizing manufacturing and transportation, and funding “massive investment” in the reduction and capture of greenhouse gases.

On the economic side, Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal includes a job guarantee program to “assure a living wage job to every person who wants one,” and plans to “mitigate deeply entrenched racial, regional and gender-based inequalities in income and wealth.” The proposal also leaves the door open to other far-left policy ideas including basic income programs and universal health care programs.

Omar was quick to throw her support behind Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal, tweeting that it is “clearer now than ever that we are in desperate need” a Green New Deal.

In subsequent tweets, Omar called for investment in “areas that have been harmed by environmental racism.”

“And we must do all of this with an equity lens. We need to invest directly in areas that have been harmed by environmental racism—the pollution and environmental degradation experienced by communities of color and indigenous nations,” Omar tweeted. “Our future depends on our ability to act now.”

As noted by Politico writers Zach Colman and Anthony Adragna, who said the plan is “likely too ambitious for even many Democrats,” if Ocasio-Cortez were to succeed in getting her plan through the House, Senate Republicans would like shut down the bill before it could reach the president’s desk. However, whether or not Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal proposal is pursued, Democratic House committee leaders have already pledged to hold hearings early next year on “how best to combat this growing global crisis.”

Update:

On Tuesday afternoon, Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum also joined the push for a Green New Deal, tweeting her support of the proposal and pledging to “continue working to transform our economy and society to stop the climate crisis.”

Christine Bauman