Elizabeth Warren Reveals Green Energy Plan, US Is Paying for the Rest of the World
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts unveiled a climate-related proposal that would set aside $2 trillion for green energy and development over the next decade on Tuesday.
Comparing climate change to the existential threat created as the Nazis rose to power in the early 1900s, the 2020 presidential hopeful described her “Green Manufacturing Plan” as an example of her proposed policy of “economic patriotism.”
“In the late 1930s, America – and the world – faced an existential threat: Nazi aggression in Europe. The United States responded by mobilizing its industrial base to produce the technology the country and the world needed to face down this threat,” Warren wrote.
“Our investments in domestic manufacturing paid off for decades afterwards.”
“Today, climate change poses both an existential threat and a scientific challenge,” the senator continued. “This is truly a global problem.”
Warren, one of the earliest proponents of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey’s Green New Deal, proceeded to say that the Green New Deal’s focus on cutting U.S. emissions to “net-zero by 2030” would still not be enough to save the planet.
Thus, her administration would create a decade of “green research, manufacturing, and exporting ” in a three-pronged commitment to make not only America but the world energy efficient.
And her proposal would see the U.S. footing the bill.
Under the three-phased Green Manufacturing Plan, the U.S. would be committed to spend $150 billion a year procuring low-carbon technology and multiply current government spending on research and development of such technologies by 10.
Finally, the plan sets aside $100 billion for “assisting countries to purchase and deploy” green technologies in the third phase of the plan called the Green Marshall Plan — just as the Marshall Plan had provisioned funding to other nations for rebuilding efforts after World War II.
“The climate crisis demands immediate and bold action. Like we have before, we should bank on American ingenuity and American workers to lead the global effort to face down this threat — and create more than a million good jobs here at home,” Warren wrote.
The senator has made similar potentially costly policy proposals while on the campaign trail.
In April, Warren’s proposed canceling $640 billion in student loan debt, which would be paid for with increased taxes, The Associated Press reported.
Other 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls have also recently released policies on the environment.
Vice President Joe Biden released a 22-page proposal on Tuesday.
Biden’s plan was quickly flagged for plagiarism as it lacks citations to a number of outside sources employed in its making, according to The Associated Press.
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