Ocasio-Cortez Slams Pelosi's Climate Change Agenda for Not Being Liberal Enough
U.S. Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is again making waves, this time by criticizing House Democrats’ plan to address climate change.
Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York who will be the youngest woman to serve in Congress when she takes office Thursday, is already taking on top-level Democrats, tweeting Monday that they need to do more to “save the planet.”
She began her New Year’s Eve Twitter rant by thanking young people for their activism on behalf of her more extreme “Green New Deal” plan, adding, “They will not be placated with ceremonial gestures. They want change.”
“Until we get fossil fuel money out of climate policy, we won’t be able to save the planet or ourselves,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Very proud of the young people across the country organizing #GreenNewDeal direct actions on their own.
They will not be placated with ceremonial gestures. They want change.
Until we get fossil fuel money out of climate policy, we won’t be able to save the planet or ourselves. https://t.co/MBNxEprZu6
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2018
The representative-elect seems to be pointing her ire at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who announced Friday that Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida would chair a select committee on the “climate crisis” in the upcoming term, The Washington Examiner reported.
Pelosi told her fellow representatives that the committee’s job would be to “engage the American people on the urgency of the climate crisis on public health.”
The California Democrat also said she hoped for the panel to focus “on reducing air pollution, on the economy for America to be preeminent in green technologies, on national security to facing climate-driven conflict and instability, and on our sacred moral responsibility to protect God’s creation for our children.”
While Pelosi and other Democrats have pushed for the United States to put more emphasis on climate change, Ocasio-Cortez seems to be frustrated that this panel will have less power than its 2007 predecessor.
The new climate crisis committee will not have the power of subpoena, and lawmakers who have received donations from fossil fuel will not be kept from joining, according to Castor.
“I don’t think you can do that under the First Amendment, really,” she said according to the Examiner.
Ocasio-Cortez had a big problem with that, however, and tweeted on Monday that “even in our own party, it‘s apparently too controversial to ask that we keep oil+gas co’s away from enviro policy.
“It’s too controversial to talk about the socioeconomics of Flint, WV, PR & the Bronx. It’s too controversial to plan for disasters that are already here.”
In DC + even in our own party, it‘s apparently too controversial to ask that we keep oil+gas co’s away from enviro policy.
It’s too controversial to talk about the socioeconomics of Flint, WV, PR & the Bronx.
It’s too controversial to plan for disasters that are already here.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2018
“While I applaud the establishment of the Select Committee,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “without subpoena power or the reasonable requests stated, it will be in an even weaker position than the select climate committee of 10 years ago.
“There is still time to strengthen it. For all our sake, I hope that we do.”
While I applaud the establishment of the Select Committee, without subpoena power or the reasonable requests stated, it will be in an even weaker position than the select climate committee of 10 years ago.
There is still time to strengthen it. For all our sake,I hope that we do.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2018
The soon-to-be-congresswoman said she had a “specific demand for a Green New Deal Committee,” and it was rejected entirely.
A few weeks ago, I joined youth activists in a specific demand for a Green New Deal Committee.
It had 3 simple elements:
1. No fossil fuel money on climate cmte
2. Offer solutions for impacted communities
3. Draft sample #GreenNewDealAll 3 were rejected as “too controversial.”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 31, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez finished her Twitter rant by saying that “we simply don’t have any other choice. If it’s radical to propose a solution on the scale of the problem, so be it.”
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