An Ecosocialist Green New Deal
Our ecosocialist Green New Deal encompasses two major programs, an Economic Bill of Rights and a Green Economy Reconstruction Program.
The Economic Bill of Rightswill finally fulfill President Roosevelt’s 1944 call upon Congress to develop programs to secure basic economic human rights for all.
The Green Economy Reconstruction Programwill not only build a 100% clean energy system by 2030, but will reconstruct all economic sectors for ecological sustainability, from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation.
The Economic Bill of Rights will be realized through ongoing programs of public provision. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will be realized through a plan of public capital investments of 10 to 20 years depending on the sector.
Implementing the Green New Deal will require ecosocialism—social ownership in key sectors in order to democratically plan the coordinated reconstruction of all economic sectors for ecological sustainability.
We are now at work estimating a budget for this expansive Green New Deal— the costs and the sources of funding to pay for it. We will release that budget at a future date.
ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS
GREEN ECONOMY RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM
HOW WE PAY FOR IT ALL
The Ecosocialist Green New Deal Budget: Introduction
Our ecosocialist Green New Deal encompasses two major programs, an Economic Bill of Rights and a Green Economy Reconstruction Program. The Economic Bill of Rights will finally fulfill President Roosevelt’s 1944 and 1945 State of the Union calls upon Congress to enact programs to secure basic economic human rights for all.
The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will zero out greenhouse gas emissions and build a 100% clean renewable energy system by 2030. It will reconstruct all economic sectors for zero emissions, clean energy, and ecological sustainability—not only electric power production but also zero-waste manufacturing, regenerative agriculture, green buildings, and electrified transportation.
The Economic Bill of Rights will guarantee the rights to a living-wage job, an income above poverty, a decent home, comprehensive health care, a good public education from child care and preK through college, and a secure retirement.
The Economic Bill of Rights will be realized through ongoing programs of public provision funded on a pay as you go basis by progressive taxation. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will be realized through a plan of public capital investments funded by a combination of progressive taxation, reordered budget priorities, revenues from the sales of publicly produced goods and services, and public money creation and/or public borrowing.
Implementing the Green New Deal will require ecosocialism—social ownership in key sectors in order to democratically plan the coordinated reconstruction of all economic sectors for ecological sustainability.
This is the only Green New Deal proposal that puts Federal public works projects front and center, as during the New Deal: The Federal government will plan and manage the construction of national, Federally-owned electrical, transportation, internet & housing systems, and will directly aid in the transformation of our manufacturing, agricultural & ecological systems.
In 10 years, this Program will not only eliminate the production of greenhouse gases, it will end poverty, unemployment, and underemployment by creating over 30 million good jobs in the course of transforming the nation’s infrastructure and production systems. The Program will increase the incomes and standard of living for the bottom 90% of the population, in all communities: African-American, white, Latinx, Asian, Native American; people with disabilities; urban, suburban & rural; working class & professional.
All goods and machinery needed for building these systems will be manufactured in the United States, reviving the manufacturing sector, which in turn will return power to the working class and unions, and along with infrastructure building will reignite a virtuous circle of widely shared, sustainable economic growth.
The only sacrifices will be made by the very wealthy and large corporations, who will contribute most of the funds needed to pay for this program via higher taxes for them, accompanied eventually by lower taxes for the rest.
Howie Hawkins, Calls for ‘Climate Emergency,” Says Democratic Climate Plans Are Insufficient
Howie Hawkins, who is seeking the Green Party presidential nomination, today urged the next president to declare a Climate Emergency on the first day in office.
Hawkins pointed out: “By declaring the climate crisis a national emergency, the president is empowered by existing laws to address the climate crisis without congressional approval. Congressional, presidential, Pentagon and intelligence reports and policy documents have identified climate change as a national security threat since 1990. It is time for immediate action to confront climate chaos.”
Hawkins said that by declaring a Climate Emergency, the president would likely be able to take immediate steps without Congress, including:
- Reorganize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), now captured by the fossil fuel industry, into the Federal Renewable Energy Commission (FREC) with the new mission of enabling a rapid shift to clean renewable energy.
- Divert military construction funds to building clean renewable energy.
• Suspend oil leases because they add to greenhouse gas emissions.
• Use emergency powers to rspond to industrial shortfalls to support clean renewable energy.
• Extend loan guarantees to critical industries to support renewable energy.
• Instruct the Department of Transportation to use its broad power to “coordinate transportation” during national emergencies to restrict gasoline-powered truck and vehicle transportation while expanding electrified rail transportation.
• Use US votes in the IMF and World Bank to ban funding for fossil fuel projects.
• Declare a ban on eminent domain for fossil fuel infrastructure.
• Mandate that federal agencies weigh the climate impact of their decisions.
• Reward proposals for government contracts based on their impact on climate change
• Instruct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require corporations to disclose their vulnerability to climate impacts.
• Close the loophole in EPA regulations that exempts agribusiness from reporting the greenhouse gas emissions of cattle, unlike other agricultural products.
• Require projects subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires analysis and mitigation of environmental impacts, to include measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Hawkins is pleased to see Democratic candidates putting forward climate plans, but none go far enough. Hawkins said, “Even the best plan announced today by Senator Sanders, fails to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions fast enough for climate safety. His cuts to the military, the largest climate polluter, are insufficient and vague. I am calling for a 75% cut in military spending to redirect major financial, physical and human resources into the Green New Deal.”
Hawkins, in 2010, was the first US candidate to run on the Green New Deal. The centerpiece of his presidential campaign is an ecosocialist Green New Deal. It calls for social ownership and democratic administration in order to carry through a rapid energy transformation. It calls for socializing key productive sectors, notably energy production, power distribution, railroads, and a domestic manufacturing sector to be rebuilt on a green basis with clean power and zero waste.
Hawkins said the mission of this Green Economy Reconstruction Program is to build a 100% clean energy system and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. He would create a cabinet-level Office of Climate Mobilization to coordinate all federal agencies to meet this goal. The program would reconstruct all productive sectors for 100% clean energy–from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation–not just electric power production.
Hawkins also said the greenhouse gas reduction timelines in the Democratic Green New Deal proposals are too slow. The most ambitious of them call for 100% clean power by 2030, which accounts for only 28% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. They wait until 2050 to zero out the other 72% of greenhouse gas emissions. Hawkins said the climate science tells us a 2050 deadline is far too late to avert a climate catastrophe.
The Hawkins’ Green New Deal also includes an Economic Bill of Rights to secure basic economic human rights for all.
“The Green New Deal has been the Green Party’s signature program over the last decade. Sanders’ Green New Deal is the closest version yet to the full Greens’ full program. We’re glad for that. But we need to pick up the pace for zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions. We’re running out of time to avert a climate holocaust,” Hawkins said.
READ MORE:
- Overview of the Budget for the Ecosocialist Green New Deal, by Howie Hawkins
- Discussion of Green Economy Reconstruction Program and Budget, by Jon Rynn
