Zach Shupp and Mary-Ellen Reese

The Green New Deal (HR 848 GREEN Act) is a major bill that has Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the front of the bill’s leadership and looks for the United States to move to 100% renewable energy resources in the next 10 years. For example, “If electricity prices surged here, working-class Americans would be clobbered. The poorest 20 percent of U.S. wage-earners spend nearly 10 percent of their income on electricity, while the richest 20 percent spend around 1 percent” (Winegarden, 3/13/2019). This Green New Deal will spike electricity bills while also taking jobs in the oil and gas industries from approximately 10 million Americans. The Green New deal is also not appropriate for all locations across the United States, making it more difficult to be a success. As stated in an article, “Not all locations have the same prospects for renewables, justifying why wind-deprived southeastern states haven't installed Renewable Portfolio Standards. The Midwest, for instance, is great for wind but building the hundreds of miles of high-voltage power lines to connect distant consuming areas has proven as difficult and costly as it sounds” (Clemente, n.d.). This proves that deploying this Green New Deal will be extremely difficult and not cost efficient for the entire United States. To reach success in the Green New Deal, the United States would have to upgrade every building to energy-efficient buildings, which would be very costly. For example, “In the Green New Deal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey want to try “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States” and “building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and ‘‘smart’’ power grids.” This would plunge the American economy into shambles. By attempting to upgrade all existing buildings and power grids, the U.S. government would need to generate trillions of dollars” (Whipple, 4/14/2021). This would be nearly impossible to be able to provide the rebuilding of every building in the United States without raising taxes to provide the money to rebuild. Former president Donald Trump has said how this Green New Deal would negatively affect the American people with the large amounts of tax increases, which would possibly lead to democrats losing seats in the House in the 2022 midterm. “Former President Trump slammed President Biden’s spending agenda as the "Green New Deal bill," warning that, if passed, the American people will face tax increases, and the Democratic Party will lose dozens of seats in the House of Representatives during the 2022 midterms” (Singman, 11/5/21). The Green New Deal would also hurt many hardworking Americans. “’The Green New Deal is a socialist super-package which will only saddle hard-working taxpayers with debt and displace millions of Americans from their jobs,’ said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.)” (Adragna, 4/20/21). This goes against the American way of capitalism and would move the economy towards a socialist form of government and economics. Ted Trainer also talks about how capitalism can’t follow this plan. The plan doesn’t go along with growth and will cause for lower investments. “Capitalism cannot do any of this. Growth is one of its defining characteristics. It is about the owners of capital constantly looking for investment outlets for their ever-increasing volumes of capital” (Trainer, n.d.). The Green New Deal is a socialist movement that is being pushed by the democrats and will cause many issues to the American economy.