It’s Tuesday, April 30, and here’s a look inside Beto O’Rourke’s ambitious climate plan.
Not to be outdone by Senator Elizabeth Warren’s public lands bill or Senator Cory Booker’s environmental justice proposal, Beto O’Rourke announced a $5 trillion climate plan on Monday. The presidential hopeful from El Paso, Texas unveiled what he modestly called “the most ambitious climate plan in the history of the United States” in a 40-second Twitter video, gesticulating wildly on a backdrop of luscious flora in Yosemite Valley, California.
Beto’s first major policy proposal of his presidential campaign has four components: slash pollution, invest $5 trillion, reach net-zero by 2050, and protect communities on the frontlines of climate change.
The meatiest portion of the former Texas congressman’s plan is that investment bit. He plans to propose a bill that would invest $1.5 trillion in innovation, infrastructure, and “people and communities,” which will mobilize a total of $5 trillion to spend on mitigating climate change over the span of a decade. The money would be parceled out for different initiatives: tax incentives to bring existing green technologies to scale, researching and developing new ways to bring down greenhouse gases, housing and transportation grants, and more.
How will he pay for it? Good question. The massive investment would be funded through changes to the country’s tax code. Corporations and the wealthiest citizens would have to pay their “fair share,” and O’Rourke said he would put an end to the billions fossil fuel companies receive in tax breaks. He promised that, if elected president, this would be the very first bill he’d send to Congress.
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