Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are reintroducing the Green New Deal resolution.
“I am reintroducing the Green New Deal and announcing the Civilian Climate Corps with [Ocasio-Cortez] because we can’t wait to deliver environmental justice, create millions of new jobs, and save our planet for generations to come. We must go bold, be ambitious, and transform our economy,” Markey tweeted on Tuesday.
I am reintroducing the Green New Deal and announcing the Civilian Climate Corps with @AOC because we can’t wait to deliver environmental justice, create millions of new jobs, and save our planet for generations to come. We must go bold, be ambitious, and transform our economy. pic.twitter.com/QNvnjefKKa
— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) April 20, 2021
While delivering remarks, Ocasio-Cortez said, “It is going to be an all-hands-on-deck approach and we refuse to leave any community behind in the process.”
She continued, “Those who have been left behind come first. We refuse to allow… an economy that goes from oil bearance to solar bearance. That’s what we are not going to do because what we are going to do is that we’re going to transition to a 100% carbon-free economy that is more unionized, more just, more dignified, and guarantees more health care and housing than we ever have before.”
Watch her remarks below:
Rep. @AOC: "We're going to transition to a 100% carbon-free economy that is more unionized, more just, more dignified, and guarantees more health care and housing than we ever have before." https://t.co/R7hStBdcPZ pic.twitter.com/DB5ATpAWz2
— The Hill (@thehill) April 20, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez argued the movement toward a more sustainable future “has been divided with really just this false notion that we have to choose between our planet and our economy.”
She continued, “We decided to come together in sweeping legislation that not only rejects that notion, but creates a plan for 20 million union jobs in the United States of America, to rebuild our infrastructure, to restore public housing, to make sure that we expand our access not only to EV [electric vehicle] and EV infrastructure but mass transit.”
The Green New Deal was first introduced in 2019 and calls for the government to focus on sustainable farming practices, increased training for clean energy sector jobs, transportation systems that are cleaner, and funding for technology to reduce peoples’ carbon footprint.
The Senate blocked the Green New Deal in 2019. All Senate Republicans and only four Senate Democrats opposed it.