The Six Most Bizarre Proposals from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
1. It calls for getting rid of airplanes
In Cortez’s FAQ, she specifically notes that she’s not sure that they will be able to get rid of airplanes in 10 years’ time. Of course, that idea, near and dear to the hearts of environmental extremists, is insane. Outside of China, where the government can do and take whatever it wants, there’s not a single nation on the planet that has built enough high-speed rail to even go from one side of the country to the other. Furthermore, high-speed rail works much better in areas with a dense population — which doesn’t describe most of the United States. Then there’s Hawaii. What, are we just supposed to take boats back and forth to the Aloha State? If you travel from San Diego to D.C., are you good with spending days on a bus going each way rather than just taking an 8-hour flight? Because if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets her way, that is exactly what you’ll be doing. I guess we’re lucky that Cortez hasn’t demanded that the buses play Al Gore’s monotone voice on an endless loop, lecturing us about global warming while we take our cross-country bus trips.
2. It calls for getting rid of cows
Why cows? Because environmentalist wackos are upset that they fart too much methane into the air. Yes, really. So enjoy those burgers and steaks while you can, because if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets her way, you’ll be eating tofu and potatoes to break up the monotony of kale burgers.
AOC has already caused fellow far leftist, Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii to have second thoughts, for obvious reasons. Can’t wait to hear PETA’s thoughts on eliminating the world’s cow population.
HOW MUCH HAVE YOU GOT? How Much Will the Green New Deal Cost?
As it happens, a team of Stanford engineers led by Mark Jacobson outlined just such a plan back in 2015. Jacobson’s repowering plan would involve installing 335,000 onshore wind turbines; 154,000 offshore wind turbines; 75 million residential photovoltaic systems; 2.75 million commercial photovoltaic systems; 46,000 utility-scale photovoltaic facilities; 3,600 concentrated solar power facilities with onsite heat storage; and an extensive array of underground thermal storage facilities.
Assuming steep declines in the costs of each form of renewable electric power generation, just running the electrical grid using only renewable power would still cost roughly $7 trillion by 2030. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation calculated that the total cost of an earlier version of Jacobson’s scheme would amount to $13 trillion. And based on how fast it has taken to install energy generation infrastructure in the past, Jacobson’s repowering plan would require a sustained installation rate that is more than 14 times the U.S. average over the last 55 years and more than six times the peak rate.
Where is the money to pay for this massive transformation going to come from? The headline over at The Week sums it up pretty well: “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to pay for her Green New Deal by essentially printing more money.”
What could go wrong?
h/t SG