Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has announced a $16 trillion climate change plan to transition the U.S. economy to 100% renewable energy in a decade.
Sanders, a leading contender in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, released the proposal on Thursday. The self-described socialist said his plan would create 20 million new jobs and pay for itself within 15 years.
Sanders has called his plan “The Green New Deal,” playing off a resolution championed by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His plan will eliminate carbon producing activities in the U.S. by 2050.
“The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts — both in the East and the West — the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism,” Sanders’ plan says.
“As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal,” the plan continues.
The climate plan outlines a number of actions for the U.S. to take, including rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, fining energy producers for carbon production, and “making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.” Sanders also wants to create and expand federal work programs to build energy infrastructure such as solar and wind farms.
The $16.3 trillion plan will be offset through taxes from the 20 million new jobs, fees and fines for carbon pollution, cutting military spending, and revenue from the wholesale of energy from renewable sources.
Nick Loris, environmental expert at the Heritage Foundation, slammed Sanders’ plan to combat climate change.
“The $16 trillion price tag, which is close to size of the entire U.S. economy in a year, is just a small part of what Americans would pay for Sanders’ plan,” Loris said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The reason conventional fuels provide nearly 80 percent of our energy needs is because they’re reliable and affordable. Sanders’ plan would cause energy prices to skyrocket, bankrupting families and businesses and empowering the federal government to control America’s energy economy.”
Loris added that Sanders’s plan would necessitate a host of new taxes and regulations, as well as massive increases in federal spending.
“And what would we get for it? A change in the earth’s temperature that’s barely measurable,” Loris said.
