Senator Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken Democrat from Massachusetts, has so far defined her 2020 presidential bid with a series of big plans that have the potential to change the American economy. From proposals for enacting a wealth tax to forgiving billions in student loan debt, Warren has positioned herself as an advocate for those facing hard times, such as the 250,000 families who enter into foreclosure every three months.
Her newest plan is in defense of the vulnerable planet. As part of the Green New Deal she and other Democrats crafted earlier this year, Warren is proposing to invest $2 trillion of federal funding in clean energy programs. According to her campaign, this large investment will help confront global climate change with funding for clean energy technology.
The plan includes a decade-long $400 billion investment for clean energy research and development with a new National Institute of Clean Energy, which would be modeled after the National Institutes of Health. With a focus on clean energy research taking place in the United States, Warren’s plan would support renewable energy technology made in America.
Currently, there are more than 2.2 million Americans who have jobs in energy efficiency or clean energy production. If officials implement what Warren is proposing according to her current outlines, the country could see many more jobs added to this number.
“With big and bold investments in American research, American industry, and American workers, we can lead the global effort to combat climate change – and create more than a million good jobs here at home,” Warren wrote in a post on Medium.
In the United States, buildings consume about 40% of the primary energy and 70% of the country’s electricity every year. Warren is proposing to partially pay for her plan by taxing the U.S. companies that utilize these energy-guzzling buildings. The companies would face a 7% corporate tax on their profits, exceeding $100 million and generating about $1.05 trillion over the course of 10 years.
Warren’s clean energy proposal is part of her larger campaign theme, a platform she is calling economic patriotism. According to her team, Warren is going to flesh out the specifics of the platform in the weeks to come. The current outlines of the idea are broad, but Warren essentially wants American companies to focus on keeping jobs in America rather than catering to the desires of foreign investors, which make up a third of the shareholders in American corporations.
Warren’s plan is facing some fierce competition in the Democratic race towards the 2020 presidential nomination. Former Vice President Joe Biden laid out his clean energy proposal just hours before Warren unveiled her own.
In a proposal that goes beyond what Obama achieved during his presidential terms, Biden wants to dedicate $1.7 trillion in spending on clean energy initiatives. He also wants to impose a tax or fee on planet-warming pollution. This is all in an effort to erase the net carbon emissions in the U.S. by 2050.
Biden is widely known as a typically moderate Democrat, but his plan is much more in line with the objectives of the Green New Deal, which the left-leaning Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York put forward to the House. With the annual global production of the world’s most common plastic, polyethylene or polythene, at about 80 million tons, almost every Democratic candidate is taking pointers from Ocasio-Cortez’s more radical stance.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington is even basing his entire campaign on climate change. Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas has recently rolled out a proposal on the issue as well.
