Climate Crisis: Senator Sanders releases a Green New Deal plan along with ways to pay for it

Bernie Sanders unveils $16 Trillion Green New Deal To Combat Climate Crisis

The 2020 Democratic candidate’s climate plan offers a detailed vision that would expand public ownership of utilities and make electricity “virtually free” by 2035.

By Alexander C. Kaufman | Aug 22, 2019 | HUFFPOST

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders released a sweeping $16.3 trillion climate plan on Thursday, vowing to create 20 million jobs and completely zero out planet-heating emissions by 2050.

The proposal outlines easily the most ambitious vision for a Green New Deal to date, with calls to massively expand public ownership of everything from power generation to groceries. With Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ending his climate-centered bid for the Democratic nomination a day earlier, the plan vaults the Vermont senator ahead of his 2020 rivals on what’s emerging as the defining policy issue of the Democratic primary.

At a moment when record wildfires are raging from the Amazon to the Arctic and Greenland is losing up to 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single day, the plan is dense with detail and frank in its goals. Where other proposals, including those from Inslee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) depict expanded regulatory regimes and public spending aimed at spurring private investment, Sanders charts out a path to a hospitable global climate through Nordic-style social democracy.

“The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares some similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s,” the plan states. “Faced with 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. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis.”

The campaign declined a request to interview Sanders on Wednesday evening.
  
 The plan opens with Sanders vowing to slash U.S. emissions 71% below 2017 levels by 2030 with 100% renewable electricity and zero-emissions vehicles. He declares war on the fossil fuel industry with kproposed bans on fracking, drilling on public lands and all imports and exports of oil and gas, and threatens companies with civil and criminal charges for pollution and obstructing climate action. He pledges $200 billion to help developing countries reduce their own climate pollution by 36% in the next decade.

Citing the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, Sanders, long a critic of nuclear power, swears off new reactors and promises a moratorium on future licenses to existing plants. His plan rules out geoengineering the climate or deploying technologies to capture carbon dioxide from fossil fuel plants, which he derided as “false solutions.” It’s unclear whether he’d consider carbon capture technologies for difficult-to-decarbonize industries like cement making.

Generous pledges for workers animate Sanders’ proposal. The plan, which comes the same week the campaign released its proposal to boost unions, promises five years of unemployment insurance, a wage guarantee, housing assistance, job training, pension support and priority job placement for all workers displaced by the transition. It offers “early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work.” It proposes high wages and union protections across nearly every sector.

What stands out first is Sanders’ clear answer to the perennial question of how to pay for it.

There’s the money saved: $1.215 trillion from “scaling back military spending on protecting global oil” and $1.31 trillion from federal and state welfare “due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.”

Then there’s the money earned: $6.4 trillion from selling electricity produced by the Energy Department’s regional power marketing authorities, $3.085 trillion from “making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies,” $2.3 trillion from income taxes on the 20 million new jobs the plan creates, and an additional $2 trillion from forcing “the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.”

Those pushing a Green New Deal, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the grassroots group Sunrise Movement, have shied away from talking numbers, even as Republicans fabricated a bogus $93 trillion price tag. Instead, advocates have pointed to the costs of sticking to a business-as-usual. The Sanders plan touches on that, too, highlighting that the costs of catastrophic warming could total $70.4 trillion over 80 years.

“This plan will pay for itself over 15 years,” the policy memo reads. “Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects.”

The 13,840-word document includes 85 dollar signs. Sanders sets aside $5.9 billion for regional economic development plans, with the lion’s share ― over $2.5 billion ― earmarked for Appalachia. There’s $15 billion for coal miners’ Black Lung Disability Fund. Another $25 billion goes to clearing the national park maintenance backlog. The restored Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that planted 3 billion trees in the 1930s, gets $171 billion.

Film Screening: 'CATCHING THE SUN' - Free

WHEN: Friday, April 29 at 6:30 PM

WHERE: Daemen College (Schenk Hall), Main St., Amherst [Map]

Sponsors: Sierra Club Niagara Group, Daemen College Department of Global & Local Sustainability, League of Women Voters Buffalo Niagara, and the Climate Justice Coalition of Western NY

Watch the film trailer:

"A must-see film. An eye-opening look at workers and entrepreneurs on the forefront of the clean energy movement that will transform, and enliven the way you see the future. What is clear is the wonderful opportunity the transition to clean energy represents." 

– MARK RUFFALO

An unemployed American worker, a Tea Party activist, and a Chinese solar entrepreneur race to lead the clean energy future. But who wins and who loses the battle for power in the 21st century?

Through the stories of workers and entrepreneurs in the U.S. and China, Catching the Sun captures the global race to lead the clean energy future. Over the course of a solar jobs training program, Catching the Sun follows the hope and heartbreak of unemployed American workers seeking jobs in the solar industry.

With countries like China investing in innovative technologies and capitalizing on this trillion-dollar opportunity, Catching the Sun tells the story of the global energy transition from the perspective of workers and entrepreneurs building solutions to income inequality and climate change with their own hands. Their successes and failures speak to one of the biggest questions of our time: will the U.S. actually be able to build a clean energy economy?

Job Openings at BUFFALO ReUSE

Buffalo ReUSE has two AmeriCorps Job Openings.

We are looking for a ReSource Educator and a Green Space Coordinator. The candidates shouldn't feel intimidated about the teaching part. If they've never taught a group of people--we can train them. They just have to have the desire and capacity to teach. Their service will last one year--from JAN-DEC 2010.

Caesandra N. Seawell, Director of Community Programs
Buffalo ReUse Inc., 716-885-4131

2010 Commemorative Calendar from Buffalo ReUSE
Revenue generated from our sale of 2010 Commemorative Calendars funds our social mission, which includes neighborhood revitalization, job training, and environmental stewardship.
Learn more and purchase a calendar here.


To read earlier posts on Buffalo ReUSE, click here.

NY State Green Jobs--No Training Corps in Buffalo?

Governor Signs The Green Jobs/Green New York Bill
Gov. Paterson signed a bill to establish a program to create green jobs and stimulate investment in weatherization and energy efficiency improvements for residential and commercial buildings. The program is designed to create jobs, lower energy costs for households, not-for-profits and small businesses and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Press release is here.

To fund the weatherization loan program and establish the Statewide green jobs training program, NYSERDA will use a portion of $112 million from the auction of carbon emission credits through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The seed money from the RGGI fund will be used to leverage private investment, which will move us toward a goal of retrofitting one million homes over the next five years.

The Green Jobs bill will allow the State to increase its existing and successful weatherization efforts that are already underway. The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) will eventually administer $394 million in funds under American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. By the end of October, $190 million in 64 contracts, representing every county in New York, will be executed as part of the WAP program.

Governor Funds Green Jobs Corps, but None in Erie County
Gov. Paterson also announced that $7 million from the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) has been awarded to 11 counties and New York City to launch the new Green Jobs Corps programs. This funding will allow local departments of social services to provide job skills training and subsidized employment opportunities in “green industries” for public assistance recipients and low-income individuals. Participants in the Green Jobs Corps program will develop occupational skills that will enable them to get jobs in addition to supporting their ability to remain employed and advance in their careers.

Half of the money will go to NY City, and the remainder is divided among 11 counties, which do Not include Erie County, home to Buffalo, the third poorest city in the Nation. WHY NOT Buffalo?

Green Career Web Site Announced
To help connect job seekers with the opportunities being announced today, Paterson also announced the launch of a new web site to assist those seeking to enter the new green job sector. The site – greencareersny.com – is designed to make it easy for individuals, businesses and workforce professionals to find the State’s local training programs and green job opportunities.

Green Jobs Training Grant

Message from Frank Hotchkiss, Western New York Apollo Alliance

Please look at this message ASAP and respond to Frank Hotchkiss (Office: 716 565-1720, Cell: 716 432-6922, fhotchkiss@usw.org) if interested. The Apollo Alliance needs responses soon to meet a grant deadline next week.

Friends,
The Western New York Apollo Alliance has put together a strategic partnership of academic institutions, business, labor groups; non-profit community groups and the workforce investment system to apply for a U.S. Dept. of Labor grant entitled Pathways Out of Poverty. The purpose of this green jobs training grant is to teach workers the skills required in emerging energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.  As a local entity, we are planning on requesting the full grant amount of $4 million.  The proposed areas which we identified to address are: energy efficient building, construction and retrofit industries, renewable electric power industry, the deconstruction and materials reuse industries, the energy efficiency assessment industry serving residential, commercial and industrial sectors and manufacturers that produce sustainable products using environmentally sustainable processes and materials.
We are in the stages of establishing appropriate training curriculum with the various educational institutions and we would like the input from the business community as to what skill sets they would like to see in prospective employees.  We have contacted the BNE regarding this opportunity and they have taken the step of reaching out to businesses which have shown an interest in relocating to WNY.  We feel this grant presents WNY with a unique opportunity to go beyond the usual training courses and procedures and provides our area the chance to develop specifically identified skill sets our local business community has helped create.
With the recent passage of the Green Jobs Bill in NY, there is an anticipated new funding stream for residential and small business energy retrofits.  Buffalo will be a targeted area for these funds and proposed work and will require a skilled workforce.
One of the major requirements of the grant is to identify job placements.  Due to this we are asking any potential employer to review the attached curriculum and decide if these trainings options fit the type of employee you may be seeking and let us know about specific training employers may be seeking.  If you feel you may be able to hire individuals' trained under this grant we would need a written commitment from you to consider such employment and state a possible number of positions over the next two years.  I emphasize, this is a commitment to consider placement, not a promise to employ.  I have also attached a training partner form and an employer form. [see links to attachments, below]
The grant must be submitted in a very short time frame, the third week of September, therefore I am asking that any business which may be interested in participating in the grant to please respond as quickly as possible. 
If you have any questions, contact Frank Hotchkiss: Office, 716 565-1720; Cell, 716 432-6922; fhotchkiss@usw.org .


Frank J. Hotchkiss
USW District 4, Staff Representative
WNY Apollo Alliance
305 Cayuga Rd., Suite 175
Cheektowaga, NY, 14225
Fax: 716 565-1727

Attachments:

• Partner Template-Training 
• Job titles
• Partner Template-Labor-Employers 
• Examples of Training to be offered

Information on the recently passed Green Jobs/Green NY Bill is here.

Clean Energy Economy = Job Growth

Report by The Pew Charitable Trusts
The number of jobs in America’s emerging Clean Energy Economy grew nearly 2.5 times faster than overall jobs between 1998 and 2007, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts. As defined by Pew, "a clean energy economy generates jobs, businesses and investments while expanding clean energy production, increasing energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and conserving water and other natural resources.

The emerging clean energy economy is creating well-paying jobs in every state for people of all skill levels and educational backgrounds. This emerging sector is poised to expand significantly, driven by increasing consumer demand, venture capital infusions, and federal and state policy reforms.

“The clean energy economy is poised for explosive growth,” said Lori Grange, interim deputy director of the Pew Center on the States. “These jobs are driving economic growth and environmental sustainability at a time when America needs both. There is a potential competitive advantage for federal and state policy leaders who act now to spur jobs, businesses and investments in the clean energy sector." The Pew web article is here, and their full "Clean Energy Economy" report is here [PDF].

New Opportunity Summit in Buffalo
A conference will be held to discuss new job opportunities and ways for re-thinking the way that federal stimulus dollars are spent in older industrial cities of the Great Lakes region. The conference, entitled "Great Lakes Metros and the New Opportunity Summit", will be held on June 18-19 at Buffalo State College. The conference website is here, and links to various aspects of the conference are listed in the right-side panel, here -->

Business Gets Green: June 18th
NYS Senator Antoine M. Thompson is keenly interested in growing green jobs in WNY and is continuing the Business Gets Green series in order to provide information and opportunities for synergy for green businesses and businesses that are going green in Western New York. All are welcome and admission is Free. For more information on the June 18th meeting, click here.

Related Blog Posts
New opportunities for green jobs in an environmentally-sustainable, clean energy economy were the topic of a number of earlier posts on this blog and can be found here.

Green Jobs Training in Buffalo...Ready?

On April 17th, 2009, Buffalo ReUse submitted their application to the U.S. Conference of Mayors to initiate a Pre-Apprenticeship, Green Jobs Training Program in Buffalo! The program is called the ReBEL Corps. BEL stands for Buffalo ECO Leaders. To be considered, Buffalo ReUse must have a letter of support from our Mayor, Byron Brown and we need your help!

We know the Mayor is committed to creating Green Jobs and to training youth in our neighborhoods. Your signature will communicate your support for this proposal and urge the Mayor to submit a letter of support on behalf of the City of Buffalo to make GREEN JOBS TRAINING possible for out of school young adults, ages 17 - 24.

Please support this effort. Click Here and Sign the Petition.
Oakland is ready...
South Bronx & Chicago are ready. See Web Links -->
The question is...Is Buffalo Ready?