Yesterday, Ed Markey and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a proposed congressional resolution providing a framework for the so-called Green New Deal.  I am pleased to note that it would not exclude use of nuclear power or large-scale hydropower.  Neither would it preclude use of market-based approaches towards regulating carbon.  Of course, it also doesn’t advocate for putting a price on carbon.

I realize that this is simply a resolution and not proposed legislation.  As such, it’s more of a political document than it is a blueprint for a Green New Deal.  Nonetheless, I do think that that’s a significant weakness.  I don’t see how anyone can look at this as a serious proposal; it’s just a political weapon.

In fact, it reads more like a broad party platform than a charter for a Green New Deal.  They may be wonderful goals and good policies, but it’s not obvious to me what any of the following items have to do with a Green New Deal:

• guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage
• adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States
• strengthening and protecting the right of all workers to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain free of coercion, intimidation, and harassment
• strengthening and enforcing labor, workplace health and safety, antidiscrimination, and wage and hour standards across all employers, industries, and sectors
• high-quality health care
• affordable, safe, and adequate housing
• economic security

Why not just call this the proposal for the complete 2020 Democratic Party platform?