Ross: Will the Green New Deal really happen?
Jan 10, 2019, 9:42 AM
Demonstrators gather in Washington DC protesting the Trump administration's stance on environmental issues. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Freshman Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who ran as a Democratic Socialist, is pushing what’s called the Green New Deal. It’s an ambitious plan to ditch fossil fuels and convert the American economy to 100 percent renewable energy in 10 years.
“This is going to be the great society, the moonshot, the civil rights movement of our generation,” she recently said.
But my guess is that even though we may be risking irreversible climate change, the Green New Deal is going nowhere. Because even climate change believers are not going to give up their gasoline cars – certainly not in 10 years. And especially if it’s the government ordering them to.
Instead, those who can afford to prepare, will prepare. Like the lawyer and the radiologist who built their Florida beach house to withstand winds of 250 miles an hour. The house has poured concert walls with rebar on top of 40-foot pilings. There are also steel cables extending from the girders, through the roof, and onto the other side of the house.
It was expensive, but when Hurricane Michael leveled Mexico Beach, their home stood undamaged. As wise as it may be to go with a Green New Deal, my guess is we’ll stick with the old deal. Which is just having people prepare according to their means, and Natural Selection picks the winner.
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