Dear Citizens and Elected Officials
In a winding path towards writing the response that Maryland Governor Larry Hogan so deserves for his State of the State address, "A Middle of the Road Morning in Maryland" (my tentative title) I came across this fine essay by David Roberts: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez
I haven't read Roberts for quite a while; most of you may know him from his long stint at Grist, but he is now at Vox.
This is the most readable yet comprehensive take on where we are, including the Democratic Party, and where he thinks we have to go. And I agree. The only aspect he left out, unless I missed a reference to it, is to "The Victory Plan" from The Climate Emergency group. But that doesn't change Roberts grasp of the scope or sweep of the challenge the Green New Deal poses; if anything, the Victory Plan is the longest elaboration yet for proposals that might make up part of "The Plan" which the standing committee was mandated to produce, but which was derailed by the Democratic Leadership in the House.
Here's a sample of what's inside of Robert's essay: quoting Sean McElwee, of Data for Progress (which in turn produced a critique of the Democratic Party in April of 2018, called "The Future of the Party: A Progressive Vision for a Populist Democratic Party,” in collaboration with the Justice Democrats) which published the fuller version of the 6 page draft bill for the Green New Deal Standing Committee, a 39 page elaboration of its ideas:
"'The most powerful force known to humans is ideology,' says McElwee. Republicans have pushed through 'radically unpopular policies because of their commitment to ideology.' But today, he says, 'young people have the ideas that people want to be associated with...'"
And Roberts himself frames the Green New Deal dilemmas powerfully:
"Climate politics is, now as ever, a choice between changes that seem impossible and a future that seems unthinkable...facing it squarely means radicalism. Now, a real response to climate change, a response on the scale of what the crisis demands, is on the table. It is an option. It has a name."
One final thought, turning our focus back to Maryland, to the poorest parts of our physical state, our housing in Baltimore and the old abandoned industrial areas in Western Maryland, Frostburg and Cumberland, and getting our policy direction from the goal for the Committee to "upgrade every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety..."...
This could put a decent job within reach, at $15 per hour, of everyone now trapped in the drug crisis referred to in the Governor's speech, and beyond, could employ 30,000 Marylanders working on 100,000 structures, not just for energy efficiency and "smart gridding" them, but making them affordable and learning solar, electrical, carpentry and plumbing skills to get the job done. Don’t the trade unions, the AFL part of the CIO, see anything promising in this line of policy? This could be the best of the old CCC, with lots of green planting work also needing to be done to get Maryland’s forest cover up from 40% of the state to 60%. (The proposed scope of “national” plantings is breathtaking as well.)
It's not cheap, and I won't put an exact price tag on it, but a very rough guess might be that it would be in the range of the Governor's targeted tax cuts - maybe more, (and a quick take on it would be $30,000 x 30,000, approaching one billion dollars, vs. the Goveror’s $500 million over 5 years) so that it would have to be federally funded. And Roberts does an excellent job on that, the weak link in the Progressive Green Cause - how to fund it. It's a bravo performance. And great background reading for our meetings coming up, the push for The Green New Deal, the local broadcasts sponsored by the Sunrise Movement, slated for Tuesday, February 5th, starting at 7:00 PM. More details here at www.sunrisemovement.org
Bill of Rights
Frostburg, MD