No Airplane, Home Or Cow Is Safe From the Democrats' Green New Deal

The need to protect our environment is something both parties can agree upon. So far this Congress, Republicans have introduced a variety of proposals that would curb carbon dioxide emissions while strengthening the competitiveness of our economy. Encouraging carbon capture technology, carbon taxes, and state clean energy programs are all ideas worthy of debate. The Democrats' Green New Deal resolution, however, is not.With the stated goal of bringing America's carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero within ten years, the Green New Deal is a manifesto aiming for "massive transformation of our society" through an unprecedented expansion of the federal government. The proposals would be funny were they not so dangerous.No airplane, home or cow is safe from regulation under the Democrats' resolution. In addition to "building a more sustainable food system that ensures universal access to healthy food" (read: vegetarianism) this erroneous proposal dreams of ending travel by airplane and building costly high-speed railways across the country. One only needs to look at California's efforts to create a railway system to understand how this project would pan out on a national level. Cost overruns and consistent delays have been almost non-stop since the project began, finally forcing California governor Gavin Newsom to abandon a substantial part of the plan this past week.Perhaps the most ludicrous part of the Green New Deal is the goal of upgrading or replacing every single building in the country, including private homes. The resolution is vague on how to pay for these changes, but it is obvious that the financial burden will fall on either homeowners or on taxpayers. If only the costs of the proposal ended there.   Continue reading...