Posted on 08/07/2020 9:57:04 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York are teaming up on a proposal requiring lawmakers who introduce climate bills to consider the impact such legislation will have on black people and poor communities.
The two Democrats introduced the Climate Equity Act Thursday that would, if passed, require Congress to score future climate bills based on how much they may negatively impact poor and minority communities, The Washington Post reported. The two Democrats initially unveiled a draft of the bill in 2019, when Harris began her unsuccessful run for president, media reports show.
The equity score would be similar to the economic scores the Congressional Budget Office applies to other legislation, WaPo reported. The Climate Equity Act would also apply to regulations the Trump administration proposes in the future.
“COVID-19 has laid bare the realities of systemic racial, health, economic, and environmental injustices that persist in our country,” Harris said in a statement to the Post. “The environment we live in cannot be disentangled from the rest of our lives.”
The bill comes as reports indicate former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is considering Harris to be his running mate.
Biden pledged early during the presidential campaign to pick a female running mate.
The bill “is a really big deal,” Kerene Tayloe, director of federal legislative affairs at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, told the Post, referring to the scoring system.
“Nothing like that has ever existed,” Tayloe added. The New York-based environmental group helped Ocasio-Cortez and Harris craft the legislation.
Harris backed the Green New Deal in 2019, which sought to aggressively cut carbon emissions over the next decade. The resolution, crafted by Ocasio-Cortez, called for “10-year national mobilizations” toward addressing climate change.
A fact sheet published alongside the proposal said the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen since World War 2.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s GND would reportedly phase out fossil fuel usage within 12 years. Studies show the plan would come with a hefty price.
Americans could be forced to pay up to $93 trillion to implement the Green New Deal over a decade, the conservative-leaning American Action Forum (AAF) noted in a study in February 2019.
Republicans in the Senate torpedoed the legislation in March 2019, while Democratic lawmakers called the vote a dog-and-pony show. The GOP defeated the proposal 57-0, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling the bill a socialistic ploy designed to kill the economy.
“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said during a September 2019 CNN town hall, although she did not embrace a fracking ban in her climate plan.
Biden has similarly declined to endorse an outright ban on fracking, though he did promise during a CNN debate in March that he would stop new fracking projects.
I think you’d find that 4 out of 5 people speaking about blacks on the left are as white as you or me or hispanic.
The bigger the impact, the harsher the measures. Slaves must be taught a lesson they won’t soon forget.
Ever notice how the Left is not currently living up to the expectations they place upon everyone else?
To paraphrase Nixon speaking of economics, "We are all racists now."
The proposed legislation would hurt ALL Americans.
Their chosen life style has about a thousand times more impact on blacks than climate change but the Left never lets little things like facts get in their way.
And self-flagellating whites.
I live outside of Philly, so I see “their behavior”.
I do agree with your assessment of public speaking on it though.
You cannot fix stupidity.
I need to up my self-hate white-guilt game. Apparently I’m lacking.
How are her friends in antifa going to throw mortars and bombs at the police if she proscribes burning anything that makes CO2?
those two just need to do a mother daughter porn video
Rules are waived for that!
How about requiring an Economic Impact Statement for every bill, that examines the total economic impact of the proposed action?
May they always take birth control.
You always hate your own sellouts more.
[[Ever notice how the Left is not currently living up to the expectations they place upon everyone else? ]]
Do as i say- not as i do- typical hypocrisy on their part-
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