Examining Bernie Sanders' Climate Plan

 So, this is it. Bernie's giant, massive, $16 trillion (over 10 years) climate plan. Considered to be one of the most progressive climate plans ever made. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.

Before I do anything else, here's the "key points" to react to:

Key Points

• Transform our energy system to 100 percent renewable energy and create 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis.
• Ensure a just transition for communities and workers, including fossil fuel workers.
• Ensure justice for frontline communities, especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly.
• Save American families money with investments in weatherization, public transportation, modern infrastructure and high-speed broadband.
• Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.
• Invest in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands.
• End the greed of the fossil fuel industry and hold them accountable.

On the surface, it very much looks like build back better. Same focus on just transitions for workers, underprivileged communities, blah blah blah. But also a lot of climate oriented stuff. Conservation, rejoining the paris agreement, and of course the big thing, 100% renewable energy. 

But, it also looks like it leans into the "new deal" aspect more heavily than Biden's plan. 20 million jobs. Well, this is Bernie's alternative to UBI. A jobs guarantee. Bleh. Not huge on that. But if it needs to be done to save the planet...ok.

Details

Climate change is a global emergency. The Amazon rainforest is burning, Greenland’s ice shelf is melting, and the Arctic is on fire. People across the country and the world are already experiencing the deadly consequences of our climate crisis, as extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes upend entire communities, ecosystems, economies, and ways of life, as well as endanger millions of lives. Communities of color, working class people, and the global poor have borne and will bear this burden disproportionately.

The scientific community is telling us in no uncertain terms that we have less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations. As rising temperatures and extreme weather create health emergencies, drive land loss and displacement, destroy jobs, and threaten livelihoods, we must guarantee health care, housing, and a good-paying job to every American, especially to those who have been historically excluded from economic prosperity.

The scope of the challenge ahead of us shares similarities with the crisis faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts—both in the East and the West—the United States came together, and within three short years restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat fascism. As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal. From the Oval Office to the streets, Bernie will generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with support for frontline and vulnerable communities and massive investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a transformation of our transportation system.

We need a president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way of climate action. We need a president who welcomes their hatred. Bernie will lead our country to enact the Green New Deal and bring the world together to defeat the existential threat of climate change.

He makes a good argument. 11 years, or by the time I'm reading this, 8 years. Basically some say that by 2030 if we dont get greenhouse gases down, we won't be able to keep climate change below 2C or so. But, looking at it, we need to get emissions down by half by 2030 and net zero by 2050. While bernie's plan is more aggressive, Build back better or Yang's plan (which I also plan to cover) look like they follow those guidelines. Even Biden's inflation reduction act compromise gets us 80% of the way to the 2030 goal. 

And while I appreciate the FDR references, his solution seems a bit too...FDR for me. Jobs are good if they're needed, but if we could accomplish the goals with a more moderate framework and use money to fund UBI and healthcare instead, I'd much rather do that. For me, work is a means to an end, and I dont care about creating jobs for their own sake. Im that "lazy engineer" Bill Gates talks about who wants to find the most efficient way of doing things. 

The thing is, economically, we need a new 21st century FDR...based around UBI, not jobs. 

As President, Bernie Sanders Will Avert Climate Catastrophe and Create 20 Million Jobs

As president, Bernie Sanders will launch the decade of the Green New Deal, a ten-year, nationwide mobilization centered around justice and equity during which climate change will be factored into virtually every area of policy, from immigration to trade to foreign policy and beyond. This plan outlines some of the most significant goals we have set and steps we will take during this mobilization, including:

 You know, this might have appealed to me in 2016-2020, but honestly, at this point, just do climate dude. Again, the rhetoric is appealing, but I kind of recognize it as hollow to some extent now. While climate is an emergency, I feel like he's using it to push something that's more "new deal" than climate. Which...dont get me wrong. I wish more dems would do it, but given it's not an idea I'm super hot on, eh. 

Really gonna have to see if the money spent is worth the investment.

Reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization of the economy by 2050 at latest – consistent with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change goals – by expanding the existing federal Power Marketing Administrations to build new solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources.

Cool, although that seems a bit more aggressive than the standard, was was half by 2030 and zero by 2050. Still, the less the climate change, the better, right?

Ending unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis. These jobs will be good paying, union jobs with strong benefits and safety standards in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will also create millions of jobs in sustainable agriculture, engineering, a reimagined and expanded Civilian Conservation Corp, and preserving our public lands.

Here we go, he's pushing his jobs program. Look. if you "end" unemployment completely, youre gonna get high inflation like we have right now. And while I dont believe the "worker shortage" is driving inflation, "ending unemployment" DOES cause inflation. This is why 4% unemployment is considered "full employment". This is the best we can do. We cannot guarantee a job for everyone under capitalism. it is impossible. What we can do is end poverty and break the link between work and income with a UBI, giving people the freedom to do what they want. And then we use the fed to THEN target full employment, wherever that may be. Giving people maximal freedom, but also keeping inflation in check. 

Dont get me wrong, climate policy is inevitably going to create SOME jobs. We need some stuff to be done. And jobs exist...to get crap done. But the goal shouldnt be the jobs. The goal should be the benefit that those jobs produce. But, bernie is stuck in 20th century FDR thinking wanting to create jobs for jobs sake. He may be far more progressive than most people in our political system, which is why I've admired him in the past, but on this issue, I don't sympathize with him. This is nice, but a leaner framework with UBI might be better.

 Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts, in line with the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII, but with an explicit choice to include black, indigenous and other minority communities who were systematically excluded in the past.

 Yeah, this is like 10x the price tag of Biden's build back better (and 4-8x the price tag of Yang's plan, to sneak peak that), and I'm not sure it is worth the extra investment. 

A just transition for workers. This plan will prioritize the fossil fuel workers who have powered our economy for more than a century and who have too often been neglected by corporations and politicians. We will guarantee five years of a worker’s current salary, housing assistance, job training, health care, pension support, and priority job placement for any displaced worker, as well as early retirement support for those who choose it or can no longer work.

Bernie, PLEASE, stick to climate. 

Honestly, we should save this stuff for UBI and M4A style proposals. 

Declaring climate change a national emergency. We must take action to ensure a habitable planet for ourselves, for our children, and for our grandchildren. We will do whatever it takes to defeat the threat of climate change.

 Sure.

 Saving American families money by weatherizing homes and lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality, modern public transportation, providing grants and trade-in programs for families and small businesses to purchase high-efficiency electric vehicles, and rebuilding our inefficient and crumbling infrastructure, including deploying universal, affordable high-speed internet.

 Most of this I agree with, although why is a call for broadband internet in a climate bill? Don't get me wrong, not against this, but seems out of place for a climate bill.

Supporting small family farms by investing in ecologically regenerative and sustainable agriculture. This plan will transform our agricultural system to fight climate change, provide sustainable, local foods, and break the corporate stranglehold on farmers and ranchers.

Sure.

Justice for frontline communities – especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly – to recover from, and prepare for, the climate impacts, including through a $40 billion Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. And providing those frontline and fenceline communities a just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure, economic development.

This sounds like money better spent on UBI.

Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.

 Absolutely, as we discussed with Biden's proposal, focusing on the foreign policy angle is extremely important, as the US is only responsible for 15% of all worldwide emissions.

Meeting and exceeding our fair share of global emissions reductions. The United States has for over a century spewed carbon pollution emissions into the atmosphere in order to gain economic standing in the world. Therefore, we have an outsized obligation to help less industrialized nations meet their targets while improving quality of life. We will reduce domestic emissions by at least 71 percent by 2030 and reduce emissions among less industrialized nations by 36 percent by 2030 — the total equivalent of reducing our domestic emissions by 161 percent.

 Absolutely. if we do not help the rest of the world grow sustainably, they will just keep spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere no matter what we do, and we will be screwed anyway. 

Making massive investments in research and development. We will invest in public research to drastically reduce the cost of energy storage, electric vehicles, and make our plastic more sustainable through advanced chemistry.

 Cool.

 Expanding the climate justice movement. We will do this by coming together in a truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in solving the climate crisis.

 I mean I know this is where Biden got his influence from with this stuff from build back better, but this seems a little...social justicey. I mean, I guess it's needed as minorities do inevitably face the worst aspects of climate change, but eh...given how much money he was looking at investing into this in other places, again, just...give us UBI.

Investing in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands. We will reauthorize and expand the Civilian Conservation Corps and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund to provide good paying jobs building green infrastructure.

 Yeah conservation is important.

• This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. Experts have scored the plan and its economic effects. We will pay for the massive investment we need to reverse the climate crisis by:

  • Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.
  • Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Revenues will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.
  • Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence.
  • Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.
  • Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.
  • Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.

Some of this i agree with. We can reduce military, especially if fossil fuel markets go by the wayside. Less need to get involved in the middle east for instance. And this would absolutely crush Russia's economy. Sticking to to fossil fuel companies is good too. 

The jobs angle seems cringe though. How much are you really gonna save with reduced safety net dependence? Not much. And honestly, the amount you'll recoup from taxes on the new jobs will be a fraction of what we're paying.

Normally Bernie provides more detailed numbers, but here is just cringe.

Thankfully, given my analysis of other proposals of his, I know exactly where to get actual NUMBERS on this stuff, so here we go.

Raising $3.085 trillion by making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies.

Generating $6.4 trillion in revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Administrations. This revenue will be collected from 2023-2035, and after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.

Reducing defense spending by $1.215 trillion by scaling back military operations on protecting the global oil supply.

Collecting $2.3 trillion in new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan.

Saving $1.31 trillion by reducing the need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs.

Raising $2 trillion in revenue by making large corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

 Still doesn't help. How will he make them pay? Where does he draw this number from?

Not sure how this power marketing administrations works. 

Military spending is doable. I do that with my UBI plan. Although once again, do I need to say it?

Again, the revenue from taxes on jobs is just the government paying itself.

$131 billion a year on reduced safety nets? I mean, I guess it could happen. But again...do I need to really say it?

 Raising corporate taxes, got it. 

Honestly, some of the funding sources here seem legit, but some of them kinda remind me of yang's plan. Wishful thinking that doesn't add up. He also had a page linking to his wealth tax plan, which don't get me wrong, is based, but uh...isn't that how he funds M4A? Dont corporate taxes also fund M4A or is that just my modded version of his plan? No, wait, he has corporate taxes down as part of M4A too. That's where I got my numbers from. 

Idk, bernie has good plans sometimes, but this one leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

But to go back to Bernie's climate article:

The cost of inaction is unacceptable. Economists estimate that if we do not take action, we will lose $34.5 trillion in economic activity by the end of the century. And the benefits are enormous: by taking bold and decisive action, we will save $2.9 trillion over 10 years, $21 trillion over 30 years, and $70.4 trillion over 80 years.

 Sure, but this comes off as fear mongering. The real question is do we need this massive super expensive plan that may or may not be full of pork to solve the problem?

As president, Bernie will:

• Transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent energy efficiency and sustainable energy by 2030 at the latest. The New Deal provided inexpensive electricity to America through efforts like the Rural Electrification Administration and the Federal Power Marketing Administrations. If the federal government was able to electrify America under FDR without computers or any of the modern technologies we have available to us today, think of what we can do today. Municipal and cooperative electric utilities still provide some of the least expensive electricity in the country today. As part of the Green New Deal, we will expand on that success.

 Ya know, I kind of like this idea. We need to modernize how we power our electrical grid, and the new deal stuff does make sense here.

Build enough renewable energy generation capacity for the nation’s growing needs. Currently, four federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and the Tennessee Valley Authority generate and transmit power to distribution utilities in 33 states.We will create one more PMA to cover the remaining states and territories and expand the existing PMAs to build more than enough wind, solar, energy storage and geothermal power plants. We will spend $1.52 trillion on renewable energy and $852 billion to build energy storage capacity. Together, with an EPA federal renewable energy standard, this will fully drive out non-sustainable generation sources.

Cool, I actually like these parts.

Weatherize homes and businesses to perform energy efficiency upgrades to make buildings more energy efficient and lower energy bills. We will provide $2.18 trillion for sliding-scale grants for low- and moderate-income families and small businesses to invest in weatherizing and retrofitting their homes and businesses. Low and moderate-income families and small businesses will be able to fully electrify heating and other current uses of fossil fuels in buildings through federal funding. We must fully end all fossil fuel use in buildings by 2030. Deep weatherization retrofits will reduce residential energy consumption by 30 percent. Because our mobile home stock is leaky and often very old, we plan to replace all mobile homes with zero-energy modular homes. As we move forward with energy efficiency efforts, we will prioritize the oldest, leakiest and least energy efficient homes and the homes of seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families first. A federal mandate through the Department of Energy will ensure that new and existing commercial buildings and wealthy homeowners meet our energy retrofit goals.

I agree with this but his numbers are concerning. Keep in mind this alone costs more than Biden's entire build back better framework. And it costs half as much as Yang's entire plan over 20 years.

Sure, we need to save the planet, and modernize things, but this kinda feels like throwing money at the problem so to speak.

Electrify homes and businesses. One of the best ways to ensure that everyone is comfortable in their homes on the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter is to bring all non-electric uses of energy onto the electric grid. For example, so many of our homes still use dirty oil, propane, and fracked natural gas for heating and cooling. We plan to provide $964 billion for sliding-scale grants for low- and moderate-income families and small businesses to invest in cheaper electricity for these needs. A federal mandate through the Department of Energy will ensure that all new construction, existing big business commercial buildings, and wealthy homeowners meet our electrification goals.

 Again, agree with the sentiment. Just not so much the cost. Given Biden and Yang, let alone other 2020 candidates like Buttigieg who I looked into, have stuff like this in their plans, Im not sure the costs here are worth it.

I mean, Biden had like $300 billion for his entire climate provision of the IRA and he claimed to be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, just short of the IPCC standards. 

And he did stuff like this. He's gonna be giving tax credits to people to reduce climate change. 

Phase out the use of non-sustainable sources. This plan will stop the building of new nuclear power plants and find a real solution to our existing nuclear waste problem. It will also enact a moratorium on nuclear power plant license renewals in the United States to protect surrounding communities. We know that the toxic waste byproducts of nuclear plants are not worth the risks of the technology’s benefit, especially in light of lessons learned from the Fukushima meltdown and the Chernobyl disaster. To get to our goal of 100 percent sustainable energy, we will not rely on any false solutions like nuclear, geoengineering, carbon capture and sequestration, or trash incinerators.

 Okay, this is where I cringe. To my knowledge, nuclear power generation is, by the numbers, one of the safest and relatively cleanest forms of energy we have. It gets a bad rap due to TMI and chernobyl and the like, but those are the exception, not the norm, and reactors today are much safer. I know Yang has a big emphasis on nuclear in his plan, and I actually kind of like that. Bernie and the greens have regularly gotten a lot of crap for being "anti science" because environmentalists freak out over nuclear for some reason, despite it being one of the potential saviors of the planet. Im not saying nuclear is perfect, but nuclear waste is generally an overstated concern. 

Regulate all dangerous greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is a very dangerous greenhouse gas, but it is not the only one we must address. Methane is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) can be more than a thousand times more powerful. In order to ensure we reach our carbon pollution emissions goals, the EPA will, under the Clean Air Act, regulate carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrofluorocarbons. By aggressively enforcing our laws, we will end the injustice of 100,000 Americans dying every year from air pollution.

Agree completely.

Declare a climate emergency. There is a climate emergency which demands a massive-scale mobilization to halt, reverse, and address its consequences and causes. Bernie will declare a national emergency on climate change and take immediate, large-scale action to reverse its effects. This is an existential threat and we will do whatever it takes to confront it.

Seems more like a virtue signal than anything else, but I do agree we need to take it seriously. Only pointing this out because I swear I read this like 3x so far in this page.

As president, Bernie will:

• Fully electrify and decarbonize our transportation sector. We will create a federal grant and zero-emission vehicle program to create a 100 percent renewable transportation sector. Zero-emission vehicle programs are already having success all across the country. In order to transition to 100 percent electric vehicles powered with renewable energy instead of expensive fossil fuels, we will institute:
  
  • Grants to purchase a new EV. Provide $2.09 trillion in grants to low- and moderate-income families and small businesses to trade in their fossil fuel-dependent vehicles for new electric vehicles. Currently, purchasers of electric vehicles are wealthier than buyers of conventional cars. As president, Bernie will make sure working families share the benefits of this transition and nobody is left behind

Again, agree with the sentiment but Bernie's price tag seems crazy expensive.

Vehicle trade-in program. Provide $681 billion for low- and moderate- income families and small businesses for a trade-in program to get old cars off the road. Families with a conventional car will be able to access an additional incentive for trading in for an American-made electric vehicle. The Obama administration conducted a successful trade-in program that helped accelerate the transition to more efficient cars. We will expand on the program and make it stronger by requiring even higher efficiency and make it available only to cars manufactured in the U.S.

 Again, agree with the sentiment but question the cost.

Doesn't help I looked at Biden's plan first. Given Biden's plan is basically a scaled down version of this, and it ALSO claims to meet IPCC guidelines while costing 1/10th as much, I really question whether we need to be spending THIS MUCH.

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In order to ensure that no one is ever stranded without the ability to charge their vehicle, we will spend $85.6 billion building a national electric vehicle charging infrastructure network similar to the gas stations and rest stops we have today. We will also ensure that new EV stations are open access and interoperable between all payment systems. Under our plan, drivers will no longer need to worry about where to charge their car or if they can pay for it.

 Absolutely.

 School and transit buses. Provide $407 billion in grants for states to help school districts and transit agencies replace all school and transit buses with electric buses. The EPA classifies diesel exhaust as a probable human carcinogen, and this exhaust contains over 40 different chemicals and air pollutants that are classified as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Children on school buses are exposed to concentrations of these substances that can be 5-15 times higher than background levels negatively impacting their health and performance in school. Once older buses are replaced with clean electric buses, school districts will save in fuel and maintenance costs over the life cycle of the bus.

 Yep, and once again, this all made it into Biden's BBB framework.

Replace all shipping trucks. Because this nation depends heavily on goods that are shipped all over the country by truckers, we must ensure that they are able to keep up their pace while we meet our climate goals. That means we must spend $216 billion to replace all diesel tractor trailer trucks with fast-charging and long-range electric trucks. Truck drivers from the largest fleets to small owner-operators will be able to access this funding.

mmmhmm.

Ensure the decarbonization of the transportation sector. When we are in the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will assist in the decarbonization of personal and commercial vehicles through regulation, enforcement and technical assistance. President Trump weakened clean car mandates on auto manufacturing, which some manufacturers opposed. Our administration will work with schools, transit agencies, cities, states, and private companies to establish standards for auto manufacturing to be 100 percent sustainable by 2030.

I think the difference in cost comes from the timetable. Biden is basically aiming for just meeting the IPCC deadlines. Bernie is trying to hit the 2050 standard by 2030...while spending 10x as much. That seems to be the takeaway I got so far.

Build public transit that is affordable, accessible, fast, and resilient.

With a $300 billion investment, we will increase public transit ridership by 65 percent by 2030. We will ensure that reliable, affordable public transit is accessible for seniors, people with disabilities, and rural communities. In addition to expanding transit service to communities, we will promote transit-oriented development to link this service to popular destinations and vital community services. For too long, government policy has encouraged long car commutes, congestion, and dangerous emissions. The Green New Deal will reverse these trends and create more livable, connected, and vibrant communities.

This is where i cringe at the left sometimes, but I dont think anyone really wants to use public transit unless they 1) are poor, 2) live in a high population density city that makes cars difficult (like new york), or 3) are like me and just don't wanna drive for whatever reason (and I'm weird in this sense). 

I feel like the left romanticizes public transportion, but i honestly consider it an inferior good relative to car ownership. While we should invest in public transport, we should also understand that the vast majority of americans will likely prefer cars. We should focus more on electric vehicles and the infrastructure to support them over this.

Build regional high-speed rail. Many other developed nations have advanced high speed rail systems. A $607 billion investment in a regional high-speed rail system would complete the vision of the Obama administration to develop high-speed intercity rail in the United States. This new system will give travelers a meaningful affordable alternative to plane or car travel between major cities. The reason high-speed rail has not worked in the United States is because we have not built the political mobilization needed to demand the funding needed to complete this vision. Together, we will create the movement needed to develop high-speed rail.

Ditto. As I said with Biden's plan, while rail CAN replace some air travel, it's not going to be convenient for most americans, and it is significantly slower than air travel (although arguably faster than car). Going from east to west coast via air travel I think takes like 3 hours? A car, on the other hand, would take like a week. Based on this you could likely do high speed rail in like 18 hours or something. Which is a decent middle ground. But I often don't see people being willing to do that on the regular. We dont really travel on trains much in the US any more. It's considered a very 19th century mode of travel. And while this would be something like 3-4x faster than normal trains, eh....im not really sure there's gonna be demand for this. It's one of those things thats romanticized, but idk how many people would actually go for it.

Retrofit dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure. In 2013, 800,000 gallons of crude oil was spilled in railroad accidents. In 2014, an average of one oil train derailed every five days. The Federal Railroad Administration will adopt new rules requiring companies to retrofit the coal and oil bomb trains to prevent explosions, derailments, and spills. We will take similar action to protect communities’ well pads, substations, compressor stations, and pipelines as we remove fossil fuels to better protect communities that never asked to be cited in their footprint.

Yeah this is important but I do wanna mention a few things about this one.

First of all, I know from studying keystone XL in the past that there are two major ways to get oil from the fields out to ports. Pipelines and rails. people fear pipelines leaking, but not building them means transport via rails instead, which just increases the odds of an accident that way.

Ultimately, we wanna get rid of oil. And that is the goal is this whole deal, isn't it? GET OFF OF FOSSIL FUELS. So, while this is worth it, if we phase out fossil fuels by 2035, will we really this?

Not necessarily against it. Just bringing up a point.

As president, Bernie will:

• Dramatically decrease the cost of energy storage. The Obama administration successfully decreased the cost of installed solar by 90 percent through a Department of Energy program called SunShot. There are similar energy storage programs at DOE and some of our National Labs that aim to decrease the cost of solutions like batteries. We will similarly decrease the cost of energy storage and meet daily and long term reliability needs. We will invest $30 billion for a StorageShot initiative to meet those goals. The StorageShot program will have a goal of commercializing technologies that can provide energy lasting 24 hours to multiple days at a capital cost lower than $1,000 a kilowatt to support the renewable energy needed to phase out coal and natural gas plants that currently serve as base generation on the grid. The program will also aim to decrease the cost of daily cycling storage resources by at least a factor of three in order to reliably and affordable replace all coal and natural gas plants that serve as backup on the grid. Additionally, in order to ensure an affordable and complete transition away from fossil fuels in the transportation sector, we will also spend $100 billion to decrease the cost of a new electric vehicle to at most $18,000.

This seems like a good proposal. For batteries in EVs and solar to work, we need capacity. We need a car that can go like 500 miles without recharging, and a decent recharge time (thinking in terms of road trips and the like). We need storage so that you never run out of energy from solar panels so idiots like MTG don't think the lights go out when the sun goes down. 

Invest in decarbonizing the shipping and aviation industries as soon as possible. The science is clear that the entire global economy must decarbonize by 2050 at latest if we hope to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. We must be extremely careful to ensure that as we do this, we make sure that domestic manufacturing and clean economy industries thrive. The federal government must identify and commercialize technologies to ensure the globe is able to fully decarbonize as soon as possible, but by no later than 2050 to meet the goals in the IPCC report. We will fund a $500 billion effort to research technologies to fully decarbonize industry, and a $150 billion effort to fully decarbonize aviation and maritime shipping and transportation.

Actually they said zero net emissions. This is above that, but...fear mongering to push this through.

Establish a nationwide materials recycling program. During World War II, Americans recycled metal and other materials that went toward making the planes, ships, and equipment necessary to fight and win the war. We must do the same to win the fight against climate change. To prevent an outsized impact on the environment from harvesting raw materials, we must build the wind turbines, solar panels, new cars, and batteries we need with as many recycled materials as possible. We will establish a “take back” program to require large corporations that produce goods with the materials needed for this clean energy transition to pay to take those goods back from consumers who no longer want them to establish a nation-wide materials recycling program so we can use as many recycled materials as possible to build the renewable energy equipment needed to transform our energy system. We will also invest in research for less resource-intensive methods and alternatives to plastic from fossil fuels, rapidly moving away from petrochemical plastics production.

Good idea.

Reassert U.S. leadership in research and engineering by marshaling resources across the federal government and institutions of higher education, including the National Academy of Engineering and National Science Foundation. The U.S. has an obligation and an economic opportunity to be a leader in developing and deploying the clean technological solutions that will solve climate change. Research and development in the challenges of the cost of storage and electric vehicles and of decarbonizing industry, aviation and shipping could put the U.S. back in a position of leadership around the world.

Once again, agree.

Lead the world in fighting climate change by investing in reducing emissions throughout the world. Bernie knows the importance of American responsibility and leadership on climate change. As President, he will take that role seriously and bring a commitment to the rest of the world on behalf of the American people to promote peace and aggressively reduce our emissions in an effort to get the international community to agree to limit global emissions to keep us at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. This will ensure the U.S. remains in a position of technological leadership and make us competitive on all sustainable energy technology to achieve our global goal of decarbonization by 2050.

Agree.

Invest in the Green Climate Fund. Despite the major shortcomings of the Paris Climate Agreement, one primary reason why the globe was able to come together to sign the Paris Climate Agreement was that major developed nations like the United States finally recognized that they had an outsized role in the creation of the climate crisis, and an outsized obligation to less industrialized nations to help them achieve the same kind of carbon pollution emissions reductions while improving the quality of life in those countries. In order to help countries of the Global South with climate adaptation efforts, the U.S. will invest $200 billion in the Green Climate Fund for the equitable transfer of renewable technologies, climate adaptation, and assistance in adopting sustainable energies. U.S. leadership can ensure that the developing world secures reliable electricity, reduces poverty and pollution-related fatalities, creates greater net employment, and improves living standards — all while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Yeah, again, we need to export this to the world too or nothing we do will be enough.

Bring together the leaders of the major industrialized nations with the goal of using the trillions of dollars our nations spend on misguided wars and weapons of mass destruction to instead work together internationally to combat our climate crisis and take on the fossil fuel industry. Bernie recognizes that the Pentagon is the largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and that the United States spends $81 billion annually to protect oil supplies and transport routes. We are uniquely positioned to lead the planet in a wholesale shift away from militarism.

Yep. Getting off of oil would massively shift our foreign policy priorities.

Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and enforce aggressive climate reduction goals. What President Trump did by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement is an international disgrace. While the Paris Agreement was an important milestone toward solving climate change, even optimistic outcomes from this agreement will not put the world on the path needed to avoid the most catastrophic results of climate change. We must think beyond Paris. The United States must lead the way in achieving binding and enforceable multilateral goals to avoid the most catastrophic results of climate change. We must ensure genuine international cooperation in line with the IPCC’s findings.

Trump was an idiot. Yep.

Renegotiate disastrous trade deals to protect the environment. Not only have agreements like NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China outsourced millions of American jobs, they have allowed corporations to outsource their pollution. Trade deals have been written in secret by billion-dollar companies to give polluters special handouts and protections, as well as the right to sue governments that pursue stronger environmental protections. Under a Sanders Administration, this will end. Trade deals will be renegotiated to ensure strong and binding climate standards, labor rights, and human rights with swift enforcement.

Yep. Any trade agreements must have labor and environmental standards. I'd also say tax standards too as there's a race to the bottom with corporate taxation and the likes too.

End overseas fossil fuel financing. The federal government currently supports investments in fossil fuels through the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, OPIC, the Export-Import Bank, and other multilateral institutions. These international investments are inconsistent with a goal to curb the global climate crisis and must end. A Sanders Administration will lead these international financial institutions in advancing the equitable adoption of sustainable energy across the planet.

Yeah, we need to get off of fossil fuels and encourage the rest of the world to do so too.

Yikes, I'm not even half way through. I'll try to be quicker instead of quoting the entire article. 

As president, Bernie will:

• Create a Climate Justice Resiliency Fund. The CJRF will ensure our infrastructure and communities are protected from the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
  
  • Once the CJRF is established and funded at $40 billion, the EPA, together with a number of other agencies, will conduct a nationwide survey to identify areas with high climate impact vulnerabilities and other socioeconomic factors, public health challenges, and environmental hazards. Each community will then be eligible for funding in order of most vulnerable to least vulnerable.
  • The interagency council will issue block grants to states, territories, tribes, municipalities, counties, localities, and nonprofit community organizations. The funds will be able to be used for climate resiliency projects, building emergency community centers and shelters with reliable backup power, wetland restoration, abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure and other environmental hazard reclamation; seawalls; community relocation; community evacuation plans and resources for safe and complete evacuation.
  • Within the CJRF, we will establish an Office of Climate Resiliency for People with Disabilities. The office will be led by people with disabilities to ensure that nationwide, the needs of people with disabilities are consistently addressed during adaptation planning and that those efforts are coordinated throughout the federal government.

Idk, this seems a little pandery to the post modernists. I guess it makes sense but eh....

Rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure. In order to remain resilient to the climate impacts we know are coming, we must repair our crumbling infrastructure. Our outdated and dangerous national infrastructure is not ready to withstand impacts like floods, hurricanes, or wildfires. Bernie has introduced legislation to rebuild America’s aging drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.

Yep this was in biden's plan too.

• Repair the nation’s water systems. Flint, Michigan, still does not have clean drinking water. Communities all over the country from Denmark, South Carolina, to rural Iowa are faced with similar dangerous contamination, such as lead, diseases, or other toxic pollution like PFAS. Bernie introduced the WATER Act, which would provide up to $34.85 billion for:

  • The Clean Water State Revolving Fund program
  • The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program
  • A new grant program to address lead in school drinking water improvements
  • A new grant program for residential septic systems
  • Funding for nonpoint source management programs
  • Pollution control programs
  • Household water well systems
  • Technical assistance to rural, small and tribal systems for drinking water systems
  • Technical assistance to rural, small and tribal systems for wastewater systems
  • A report on affordability, discrimination and civil rights violations, public participation in regionalization, and data collection
  • A study on water affordability and discriminatory practices or violations of civil rights and equal access to water and sewer services
  • Technical assistance to rural and small municipalities and tribal governments. The bill would also double the amount of federal funding to Tribes for water infrastructure grants
  • A new grant program to help households install, repair, replace and upgrade septic tanks and drainage fields
  • Requiring states to use no less than half of federal funds to provide additional subsidization to disadvantaged communities and to support the rebuilding of municipal resources where disrepair impacts community health
  • Limiting federal funding to publicly owned, operated and managed drinking water utilities and small private water systems and requiring additional subsidization to disadvantaged communities
  • Allowing state Drinking Water SRF funds to provide grants to private property owners to replace lead service lines
  • Expanding federal funding to decontaminate our drinking water from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
  • Requiring funds made available to use iron and steel products produced in the United States
  • Requiring prevailing wages for all projects funded by the federal government for water infrastructure and requires recipients to use project labor agreements to the maximum extent practicable

Dont get me wrong, this deserves to be done, but this isn't really a climate provision. Still, Flint's water is scary and is long overdue to fixing. No one should have to live on toxic orange water.

Build resilient, affordable, publicly owned broadband infrastructure. Internet access and communications are key in the wake of a disaster. In order to ensure that communities get the help they need, we will provide $150 billion in infrastructure grants and technical assistance for municipalities and states to build publicly owned and democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband networks. This communications infrastructure will ensure first responders and communities are ready to deal with the worst climate emergencies.

 Another thing I support, but this seems largely unrelated to climate. Seriously the ISP situation is terrible in America, but yeah. Again, seems shoehorned into a climate bill.

Increase funding for roads. Our national roads and highway system is crumbling. That’s why Bernie’s Rebuild America Act provides $75 billion for the National Highway Trust Fund to improve roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure in the United States and another $2 billion for other surface transportation needs.

 Again all of these things are nice, but this isn't climate related directly.

We do need this done anyway. Our infrastructure is falling apart.

I'm gonna skip around a bit now.

• Build the 7.4 million affordable housing units to close the affordable housing gap across the country and guarantee safe, decent, accessible affordable housing. We will greatly expand the National Housing Trust Fund to build the units necessary to guarantee housing as a right to all Americans.

  • Repair and modernize public housing including making all public housing accessible, conducting deep energy retrofits of all public housing, and providing access to high-speed broadband. We will also ensure that public housing has quality, shared community spaces to ensure every public housing complex has the capacity to serve as a community resiliency center.

Come on Bernie, this is a good priority, but why is this in a climate change bill?

Retrofit our public infrastructure to withstand climate impacts. Beyond repairing our existing crumbling infrastructure, we must ensure that our public highways, bridges and water systems are ready for climate impacts we know are coming. We will invest $636.1 billion in our roads, bridges, and water infrastructure to ensure it is resilient to climate impacts, and another $300 billion to ensure that all new infrastructure built over the next 10 years is also resilient.

Yes, this is good.

Adapt to sea level rise. Forty percent of the US — over 126 million Americans — live on the coast. Because such a high percentage of the American people live on the coast, coastal resiliency deserves special attention. We will provide coastal communities with $162 billion in funding to adapt to sea level rise.

Yeah, when I saw Bernie in 2019 on vacation in SC, the park we were standing in like 2 blocks from the beach was supposed to be underwater in a few decades.

Protect community cohesion. After Hurricane Katrina, 24 percent of New Orleans residents — many of them low-income families and people of color — evacuated the city and were never able to return. The same thing is still happening in Puerto Rico today as almost 130,000 people have been forced to leave the island because the federal government has failed to distribute all the disaster aid approved by Congress. Our disaster response should ensure that to the extent possible, families are able to return to their home communities. We will amend the Stafford Act to ensure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is empowered to address this problem specifically to ensure that recovery and rebuilding efforts make affected communities stronger than they were before the disaster so they are more resilient to the next disaster.

I mean if people wanna move let them move. Give people a UBI and let them decide where they go. 

Achieve aggressive emissions reductions in the forest sector. Conserving and sustainably maintaining our forests not only helps improve air and water quality and provide recreation opportunities for American families, it is also a huge opportunity for carbon pollution sequestration. In order to fully understand the opportunities, the Forest Service must work with the U.S. Geologic Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a survey of emissions and natural carbon sequestration from the forestry and agricultural sectors.

Yes, this is a major priority.

• Invest in green infrastructure and public lands conservation by reinstating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). One of the most successful New Deal programs and the most rapid peacetime mobilization in American history, the CCC put millions of men to work building and maintaining trails and conserving America’s wilderness. By the time the program ended at the start of World War II, it had planted more than 3.5 billion trees, and even today stands responsible for more than half the reforestation done in our nation’s history.

  • We will invest $171 billion in reauthorizing and expanding the CCC to provide good-paying jobs building green infrastructure, planting billions of trees and other native species, preventing flood and soil erosion, rebuilding wetlands and coral, cleaning up plastic pollution, constructing and maintaining accessible paths, trails, and fire breaks; rehabilitating and removing abandoned structures, and eradicating invasive species and flora disease; and other natural methods of carbon pollution sequestration. We must take these natural solutions seriously as an important part of our strategy to solve the climate crisis.

Not against this per se, but are you doing this to create jobs or for its benefits?

Fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). For 50 years, the LWCF has helped stimulate our nation’s $1.7 trillion a year outdoor recreation, natural resource protection, and historic preservation industry by conserving millions of acres in our national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and wild and scenic river corridors via over 41,000 state and local projects. In 2019, the LWCF was permanently authorized. However, it has been chronically underfunded. We will spend $900 million to permanently fund the LWCF to safeguard natural areas, water resources, and our cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans.

This seems fair.

End our National Park maintenance backlog. Our National Parks are one of our greatest national treasures. National Parks and park rangers help educate the public about the need to protect wild spaces, sequester carbon by protecting wilderness, and conserve historical, cultural and natural resources. Our National Parks have fallen into serious and dangerous disrepair. We will perform more than $25 billion of repairs and maintenance on roads, buildings, utility systems, and other structures and facilities across the National Park System. This will help ensure that park visitors have a safe and enjoyable experience connecting with nature for years to come.

Also fair.

As president, Bernie will:

Make the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution by:

• Massively raising taxes on corporate polluters’ and investors’ fossil fuel income and wealth.
• Raising penalties on pollution from fossil fuel energy generation. The EPA has historically under-enforced the existing penalties for polluting under the Clean Air Act. As president, Bernie will raise and aggressively enforce those penalties.
• Requiring remaining fossil fuel infrastructure owners to buy federal fossil fuel risk bonds to pay for disaster impacts at the local level. Federal risk bonds can then be paid to counties and municipalities when there are fossil fuel spills, explosions, or accidents.

I mean a lot of this seems like just standard bernie proposals, like taxing wealth. 

Enforcing existing laws sounds good.

Prosecute and sue the fossil fuel industry for the damage it has caused. When it was revealed in 2015 that the fossil fuel industry knew their actions were contributing to climate change decades ago, Bernie sent a letter to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to open a federal investigation to find out whether the industry violated the law. President Bernie Sanders will ensure that his Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission investigate these companies and bring suits — both criminal and civil — for any wrongdoing, just as the federal government did with the tobacco industry in the 1980s. These corporations and their executives should not get away with hiding the truth from the American people. They should also pay damages for the destruction they have knowingly caused.

Sure, but how much revenue are you really going to get? 

Create a National Climate Risk Report. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will jointly develop an economy-wide survey of climate risks. To create this report, the SEC will require corporations to audit and report their climate risks. The EPA will use the information to target the worst climate risks through economy-wide regulations to limit carbon pollution emissions under the Clean Air Act to achieve our carbon pollution reduction goals.

Sounds good.

Implement sanctions for corporations that violate our domestic climate goals. Polluters should not be allowed to run around our climate laws. Bernie will require the EPA and the Treasury Department to monitor investments and actions made around the globe to ensure our national carbon pollution emissions reduction goals are met. Bernie will impose sanctions on corporations and entities that threaten national and global emissions reduction goals.

Nice.

End fossil fuel subsidies. The federal government hands out almost $15 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry every year. The American people will no longer be on the hook for this wasteful and dangerous spending when we are in the White House.

Keep fossil fuels on public lands in the ground. Scientists have been clear that in order to solve the climate crisis, we must leave fossil fuels in the ground. We will immediately end all new and existing fossil fuel extraction on federal public lands.

Ban offshore drilling. If we are serious about moving beyond oil toward energy independence, lowering the cost of energy, combating climate change, and cutting carbon pollution emissions, then we must ban offshore drilling. If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2010 BP oil spill disaster, it is that Congress must not open new areas to offshore oil drilling and ban drilling in the Arctic Circle and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

End all new federal fossil fuel infrastructure permits. We will ensure fossil fuels stay in the ground by stopping the permitting and building of new fossil fuel extraction, transportation, and refining infrastructure. Additionally, Bernie will repeal Trump’s Executive Orders (Orders 13867 and 13868) which fast-tracked construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and revoke all federal permits for those projects. He will also deny all Section 401 permits for fossil fuel infrastructure.

Require fossil fuel corporations repair leaking infrastructure, including natural gas and oil pipelines and drilling sites. Methane from fracked natural gas is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) can be more than a thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane leaked by the oil and gas industry each year is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon pollution emitted each year by the US coal industry. The Trump administration repealed important regulations that were based on Colorado’s regulation of leaking fracked natural gas pipeline and wellhead leaks. Those regulations must be reestablished and strengthened to ensure there are no more oil and fracked natural gas leaks.

Clean up old and abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure. There are thousands of abandoned fossil fuel sites all over the country. As we move forward with this plan, there will likely be thousands more. We will put people to work in those communities cleaning up plants, pipelines, well heads, and refineries with good-paying, union jobs while ensuring the highest workplace safety standards, and repurposing these facilities for community needs.

Ban fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining. Fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining are two particularly harmful methods used to extract fossil fuels. They make surrounding communities less healthy and less safe. They must be immediately banned.

Ban imports and exports of fossil fuels. Congress’ decision in 2015 to lift the ban on exporting fossil fuels was a mistake. We must no longer export any fossil fuels. Our coal and natural gas are contributing to increased emissions abroad. We will also end the importation of fossil fuels to end incentives for extraction around the world. We can meet our energy needs and ensure energy security and independence without these imports.

Divest federal pensions from fossil fuels. Federal employees’ pensions are currently invested in fossil fuels. That puts their pensions at risk. The federal government must protect and grow those pension funds by instead investing in the clean energy economy.

Pressure financial institutions, universities, insurance corporations, and large institutional investors still invested in or insuring fossil fuels to transition those investments to clean energy bonds through executive action. When we are in the White House, we will establish new financial rules through the SEC and other regulatory agencies to pressure hedge funds, the insurance industry, and other large investors currently invested in fossil fuels to divest or pay for clean energy investments through clean energy bonds. We have seen a movement of activists force divestment from fossil fuel corporations, and we will support these movements in the White House.

Place a fee on imported Carbon Pollution-Intensive Goods. We will make sure that goods sold into the U.S. are not able to undercut domestic manufacturing by placing a fee on the carbon intensity of those products, under the World Trade Organization General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Article 20. This will not only prevent U.S. manufacturers from being incentivized to leave the United States, it will also provide extra revenue to boost clean domestic manufacturing.

Accurately estimate the climate impacts or benefits of all legislation proposed in Congress. In order to ensure our lawmakers keep us on the right path, we will require the Congressional Budget Office to coordinate with the EPA to provide a “climate score” for legislation, similar to the budget score legislation currently receives.

Focus the federal government’s resources on transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy economy. In order to make the carbon pollution reductions required by the IPCC report, we must eliminate all new fossil fuel production in the United States immediately. This will require reorganizing the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Energy Information Administration, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare for the clean energy economy and climate impacts to eliminate or transition resources and offices historically used to facilitate fossil fuel extraction, transportation, refining, and use. Instead, these agencies will lead a centralized taskforce to phase out fossil fuels by expediting research, development, deployment, and technical support for polluting industries to ensure a smooth transition for the workers and communities who have historically relied on fossil fuel production. This taskforce will be responsible not only for phasing out fossil fuel production on public lands and waters, but will support the end of fossil fuel production on private property as well.

At this point im just skimming but this all sounds pretty good. Most, if not all of this needs to be done, and any critiques sounds like the same stuff I've been saying this whole time.

As we rapidly move toward renewable energy and energy efficiency, we must ensure that the workers employed in the fossil fuel industry see that their standards of living are not only protected, but improved. A just transition for workers means guaranteeing the incomes, training, and pensions of affected workers, as well as major targeted investments in fossil-fuel-dependent communities. The clean energy economy, which will create three times more jobs and a full-employment economy, must also build strong unions, high wages, and benefits. Finally, the Green New Deal will redress historical injustices, by tackling poverty, inequality, and the disproportionate impacts of environmental damage on poor neighborhoods, communities of color, First Nations, and rural America.

Workers

Bernie has fought for workers his entire career. He understands that coal miners and oil-rig operators are not the problem. Fossil fuel workers have powered the country for more than a century, working in dangerous and precarious jobs to provide for their families. They have given their lives on unsafe, under-regulated worksites, and they have seen their pensions get cut, their health care get stripped away, and their jobs disappear while fossil fuel executives rake in billions.

For too long, this country has neglected workers displaced by government policy. NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, which Bernie opposed, eliminated millions of jobs and left entire communities devastated. Bernie will put workers first. Full employment, economic opportunities and high-wage jobs in underserved areas will be supplemented by income, health care, education and pension protections. When we are in the White House, compensation and assistance for displaced workers will come first; the balance sheets of fossil fuel corporations and billionaire investors will come last.

Ok, now we're getting to the last section.

Honestly, Im very sympathetic to these economic justice issues, but this is where UBI and the like comes in for me. I aint for a jobs guarantee. And Bernie has a lot of band aid fixes that I honestly think we'd be better off having a UBI with. Maybe a UBI wouldnt serve some of these specific groups as well, but these kinds of policies that help specific groups at the tax expense of others can be alienating, and it's better to have a policy that helps everyone, rather than one that creates winners and losers.

As president, Bernie will:

• Ensure a just transition for energy workers. When we are in the White House, we will create millions of union, family-wage jobs through the Green New Deal in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will spend $1.3 trillion to ensure that workers in the fossil fuel and other carbon intensive industries receive strong benefits, a living wage, training, and job placement. We will protect the right of all workers to form a union without threats or intimidation from management. The benefits include:
  • Up to five years of a wage guarantee, job placement assistance, relocation assistance, health care, and a pension based on their previous salary.
  • If workers would like to receive training for a different career path, they will receive either a four-year college education or vocational job training with living expenses provided. They will also be eligible for health care through Medicare for All.
  • We will fully fund tenant-based Housing Choice Vouchers to ensure housing assistance to provide safe and affordable housing.
  • If a worker is ready to retire, they may opt for pension support and access to health care through Medicare for All.
  • Currently, the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund and multi-employer miners pensions are paid for by coal companies. We will protect miners’ pensions and provide $15 billion for the Black Lung Disability Fund to ensure it remains solvent as we transition away from coal.

Again, we could be funding a UBI instead of this.

Require strong labor standards. All funding that flows from this plan should have the best labor standards attached. That means that all projects completed with funding from the Green New Deal will have fair family-sustaining wages, local hiring preferences, project labor and community agreements, including buying clean, American construction materials and paying workers a living wage to the greatest extent possible. We will improve worker and fenceline community safety standards at manufacturing and industrial plants. Additionally, we will ensure that workers remain safe on the job by providing $100 million in funding for the Department of Labor Susan Harwood training for high-risk industrial workers.

I do appreciate Bernie's call for the highest possible labor standards here.

Provide employers with tax credits to incentivize hiring transitioning employees. In order to ensure that workers who are displaced by this plan are able to find meaningful employment, we will provide the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to employers who hire them.

*sigh*. U. B. I.

Protecting the right of all workers to form a union without threat or intimidation from management. Currently, the clean energy economy jobs are not yet as densely unionized as fossil fuel and building trades jobs. We plan to change that. Jobs created through this plan will, to the extent feasible, be good-wage, union jobs. In order to do that, we must protect the right of all workers to form a union and collectively bargain by passing Bernie’s Workplace Democracy Plan. We will work with the trade union movement to establish a sectoral collective bargaining system that will work to set wages, benefits, and hours across entire industries, not just employer-by-employer. Unions not only ensure that workers receive fair pay and benefits, they fight to ensure that workers, first-responders, and fence-line communities are safe and healthy.

I like this, this is nice.

As president, Bernie will:

• Provide targeted regional economic development. Communities especially in need of assistance during our transition to a clean energy economy will be eligible for an additional funding for economic development investments through regional commissions and authorities. Our federal regional commissions make targeted economic development investments in rural America. These commissions have funded projects that enhance workforce competitiveness, build and repair infrastructure, and increase community capacity like broadband projects, clean drinking water, organic farming, and energy efficiency.

An additional $5.9 billion in funding will be distributed as follows:

• $2.53 billion for the Appalachian Regional Commission
• $506.4 million for the Delta Regional Authority
• $304 million for the Denali Commission
• $405 million for the Northern Border Regional Commission
• $94 million for the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission
• $2.02 billion for Economic Development Assistance Programs
• Infrastructure investments for impacted communities. We will provide $130 billion for counties impacted by climate change with funding for water, broadband, and electric grid infrastructure investments.

I mean improve infrastructure, sure. But other than that, I'd rather literally have a UBI than do these employment projects.

A Just Transition for Frontline Communities

There is no doubt that the poor and marginalized suffer from the impacts of pollution and climate disruption — particularly communities of color. They are at the frontlines of the climate emergency. For example, of the 73 waste-burning incinerators across the United States, an astounding 79 percent are located within three miles of low-income and minority neighborhoods, which are exposed to mercury, lead, and soot. The Green New Deal is not only a serious climate plan, but an opportunity to uproot historical injustices and inequities to advance social, racial, and economic justice, including redressing the exclusion of black, brown, Native American, and other vulnerable communities from the programs that made up the original New Deal.

Im not gonna read every bullet point off of this part, but I was audibly groaning the whole time. 

For the economic aspects, just give everyone a UBI and let them figure out what they wanna do. No need for complex postmodernist lenses of social justice, let the market figure itself out.

I do appreciate trying to discourage just dumping all the pollution where POC and native americans live though. They do tend to face the crap end of America way more often.

• The first two years of this plan will be spent very aggressively laying down a social safety net to ensure that no one is left behind. Because this plan is so comprehensive in ensuring we solve the climate crisis, we must prioritize establishing a social safety net in the first years of the implementation of this plan:

  • Energy assistance. While we do not expect energy prices to spike because the federal government is going to weatherize homes, electrify heating, and keep electricity prices stable, we still want to ensure that families are protected during the transition. We will expand the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by $25 billion to help low-income families pay their heating and cooling bills. Additionally, the program will be expanded to provide 10 percent of program costs for maintenance of new efficient heating and cooling systems and technical assistance for the installation and use of new furnaces, heat pumps, boilers, and other upgrades for the duration of the 10-year transition.
  • Ensure a hunger-free transition.Because the cost of energy and food are so intertwined, we will provide $215.8 billion for free, universal school meals, including breakfast, lunch and snacks. We will expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $311 billion to increase the benefits from the “thrifty” plan which provides inadequate benefits to the more generous “low-cost” food plan, include those with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line, remove punitive work requirements, remove barriers for college students to access SNAP, and ensure people are not denied benefits due to past interaction with the criminal justice system. We will also expand the SNAP program and benefits to the people of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa so they are on par with the benefits in the continental United States.

Fricking UBI, man.

Empowering Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems

Our current food system accounts for 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Not only can we drastically reduce on-farm emissions, farmers have the potential to actually sequester 10 percent of all human-caused emissions in the soil. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are the industries most vulnerable to climate change. We need to incentivize farming systems that help farmers both mitigate climate change and build resilience to its impacts.

Agriculture has a huge potential to sequester carbon. We need to employ farms of all sizes and production models to transition to ecologically regenerative practices to combat climate change. According to research at the Rodale Institute, agriculture could sequester 37 gigatons of carbon annually worldwide. Sadly, just 10 percent of farmers receive 75 percent of agricultural subsidies in the U.S., and those subsidies don’t prioritize carbon sequestration or soil health. We need to start by supporting all farmers not just a wealthy few and incentivizing conservation not over-production.

Again, not gonna go over every bullet point, but you get the idea. A lot of this is needed.

Conclusion

Okay, so...now that I read Bernie's whole green new deal, and actually went over the details, and understand what the IPCC guidelines actually are, what do I think of it?

Well, I'm not a huge fan. 

First of all, I feel like Bernie misrepresents the IPCC guidelines to make the issue seem more urgent than it actually is. Which is good politics and actually was enough to scare me out of my yang support in 2020 believing there were greater issues at hand that had to be solved NOW, but now it's kind of leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Biden's build back better initative and Yang's plan both target 2050, and also actually meet IPCC guidelines, at a fraction of the cost. While Bernie gets the 2050 goal by 2030, he also spends anywhere between 3x and 10x as much as other candidates did. 

And honestly, I'm not sure if it's really necessary. A lot of his ideas aren't even climate related. he spends enormous sums of money on jobs programs which I'm not sure we need, and social programs to cover transitions, when we could jsut fund a UBI. I'm not sure why broadband keeps appearing in an infrastructure bill, but he was confusing a lot of his priorities, adding a bunch of stuff that wasn't really needed. I don't even disagree with these priorities, but they should be kept separately and be treated as separate proposals.

And while I normally don't hate on Bernie's funding, the funding in this case was...questionable. He seemed to reusing funding schemes for other programs, which might make sense given those other programs somehow ended up in this plan. 

As far as the stuff that did need to be done, he still threw enormous sums of money at the problem, spending far in excess of other candidates on their plans. 

I mean, I guess I shouldnt hate on him too much. He actually pushed Biden significantly to the left, to the point Biden had a decent climate plan based off of this one that was also pretty serviceable. Had a lot of the same goals, but was leaner and more realistic.

Honestly, I prefer Biden's version of this program over Bernie's. Maybe Bernie's was the romanticized FDR version of the proposal, but honestly, it's climate. We just wanna kill greenhouse gases here. We don't need to create millions and millions of jobs and have all of this bloat in the idea. I mean, I think I read somewhere else almost half of Bernie's proposal isn't even climate related. And that's cringe. 

Given Bernie's plan is $16 trillion over 10 years, and Biden's plan was 1.7 trillion over 10 years, and Yang's plan is like $4.8 trillion over 20 years, we can see Biden is a clear outlier here.

To be fair I might also look at warren's proposal. I googled it while writing this and it was a middle ground between more moderate proposals and Bernie's proposal. But yeah. Bernie's proposal is very extreme. 

But yeah, TLDR, while it is the most progressive climate plan I've seen, and arguably the most aggressive, it's extremely expensive, it's not well paid for, it's full of pork and other gimmes that I'd rather do away with so I can fund UBI instead, and a lot of it is either not related to climate change, or just seems to be throwing tons of money at the problem. I definitely think I prefer more moderate proposals, granted they still meet IPCC guidelines.