Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke announced today a $5 trillion plan to fight climate change, in his first detailed policy rollout to date.
O’Rourke, whose first trip to Iowa in March grew criticism for being light on specifics, said on his campaign website that 80 percent of the funds would go toward research in order to ‘rapidly achieve net-zero emissions while growing our economy.’
He is calling for net zero emissions by 2050 and getting halfway there by 2030 – a similar goal but with a lengthier timetable than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose ‘green new deal’ calls for reaching zero emissions within a decade.
O’Rourke says the plan is needed to keep Earth from sliding past the point of no return in less than a generation.
The former Texas congressman unveiled his proposal today from California’s Yosemite National Park, a dramatic backdrop for a move he hopes can jumpstart a campaign that began to much national fanfare but has seen some of that luster fade in recent weeks.
The plan calls for increasing taxes on ‘corporations and the wealthiest among us’ and ‘ending the tens of billions of dollars of tax breaks currently given to fossil fuel companies’ while offering federal grants to encourage innovative improvements in housing and transportation.
However the revenue provisions he mentions lack detail.
O’Rourke claims it will be paid for by ‘structural changes’ to the tax code dealign with corporations and ending oil company tax breaks.
O’Rourke tweeted Monday:
Climate change is the greatest threat we face. And we won't solve it with half measures or half the country. It will take all of us. That’s why I just announced an historic, ambitious plan to meet this challenge and invest in our communities. Read it here: https://t.co/AfuyvjRwHJ
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) April 29, 2019
The plan includes $1.5 trillion in direct federal funding, while seeking to incentivize an additional $3.5 trillion from states, private capital and other sources over 10 years to improve aging infrastructure nationwide and to take ‘significant actions to defend communities’ preparing for intensified floods, droughts, hurricanes, fires and other natural disasters fueled by a changing climate.
Like others in the packed field of Democrats seeking the White House, O’Rourke promised to sign climate change-fighting executive orders on the first day of his presidency – including rejoining the 2016 Paris Agreement, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S.
And, aligning with the Green New Deal , an ambitious but long-shot initiative backed by some of the most liberal Democrats in Congress, O’Rourke’s proposal calls on the U.S. to guarantee net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while promising to reach half that goal in just the next 11 years.