Two weeks ago youth climate activists from the Sunrise Movement and Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez marched on Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol Hill office to demand that Democrats take a bold stance on combating climate change.
Since then there has been an enormous response both by House Democrats and environmentalists to the historic green effort. At least 15 House Democrats have stated that they are willing to sign onto the formation of a new select committee to create a Green New Deal.
“We don’t need another report to tell us climate change is a threat to our health, environment and economy,” says Rep. Chellie Pingree, who released a statement on Tuesday, making her the latest supporter. “We must take urgent action to end our nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and stop the damage greenhouse gases have done to our way of life.”
Pingree’s home state of Maine has suffered the effects on climate change as warming waters are threatening the lobster industry and thus the state’s economy.
“I see the crisis of climate change every day in my state and believe a new committee dedicated exclusively to this crisis can support the long-standing work of other House committees and help to fast-track solutions,” she wrote in her statement.
The Green New Deals aims to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to transition the U.S. to 100 percent renewable energy within 10 years of passing the Green New Deal legislation. Proposed by Ocasio-Cortez, the Sunrise Movement, and the left-wing PAC Justice Democrats, a draft of what a blueprint for what the deal might look like is already available.
Here is the draft resolution @Ocasio2018, @sunrisemvmt and @justicedems is proposing to create a committee that has a goal to create a real plan that averts the climate crisis in time with concrete guidelines for how that must be done to ensure justice for all. pic.twitter.com/A9HGkHHg0i
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) November 13, 2018
The draft calls for a select committee with the authority to create a “detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan” allowing the United States to swiftly become carbon-neutral. The deal also calls for creating jobs and “social, economic, racial, regional, and gender-based justice and equality.”
Among its supporters are civil rights leader and Democratic Congressmen John Lewis, and the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Additionally, the proposal has the support of nearly 100 environmental, economic, and social justice organizations.
The science is clear—we need urgent action on climate change now. Actually, we needed it 15 years ago. Now we’re running out of time.
Time to get past the hurdles, and realize that the #GreenNewDeal is critical to our future on this planet.https://t.co/rvcQwOp7Kb
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 20, 2018
Here is the complete list of the 15 House Democrats that have pledged their support:
- Jared Huffman (CA-02)
- Ro Khanna (CA-17)
- Ted Lieu (CA-33)
- John Lewis (GA-05)
- Joe Neguse (CO-02)
- Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
- Jamie Raskin (MD-08)
- Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)
- Rashida Tlaib (MI-13)
- Ilhan Omar (MN-05)
- Deb Halland (NM-01)
- Carolyn Maloney (NY-12)
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14)
- José E. Serrano (NY-15)
- Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
The Sunrise Movement has already planned another mass action at the Capitol for December 10th, right before Congress breaks for the holidays, “to make sure Ocasio’s Select Committee on a Green New Deal makes it on the agenda for 2019.”
WOAH. Big news: We launched our DC action for December 10th just 24 hours ago and we already have…
📣 230 people signed up to come! 🙌
This action is going to be HUGE. Don't miss out on this historic moment, come join us in DC! https://t.co/JFuoRaNWA4
— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) November 29, 2018
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