The ideology behind the Green New Deal has been longstanding. Grassroots and activist movements that targeted a shift in US policy on nonrenewable energy, began back in the 1970’s with the Oil Crisis of 1973 acting as a catalyst. Tennent’s remained in the hearts of activists throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s when in 2006, aligned movements came to political fruition in the form of the Global Greens: Green New Deal Task Force. The Green New Deal Task Force set out to implement programs in the United States that would result in the following:
- One-hundred percent renewable energy by the year 2030;
- Employing a carbon tax;
- Job creation;
- National promotion of public programs;
- Creating a single-payer healthcare system; and
- Reduced college tuition.
These initiatives were largely developed unbeknownst to a majority of the general public, as they were incubated within the platform of one of the country’s minority ranked political parties, the Green Party. Rapidly however, in 2007, the moniker “Green New Deal”, rose to public prominence, when noted New York Times Op-Ed columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, “Finally, like the New Deal, if we undertake the green version, it has the potential to create a whole new clean power industry to spur our economy into the 21st century.” (Friedman, 2007).
In quick succession, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) began to promote and unveil a Global Green New Deal initiative in 2008, that targeted creating jobs in the developing sustainability sector.
In 2010, Candidate Howie Hawkins ran on a Green New Deal-centric platform in the New York governor’s race, urging it’s implementation, much like the New Deal, in response to climate change, harkening back to the United States’ response to past pressing national and international crises such as the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism overseas. Despite Hawkins’ unsuccessful bid for governor, similarly aligned candidates have run on Green New Deal Task Force inspired platforms and political ideologies since.
After a brief lapse in public notoriety, the Green New Deal began to remerge itself in the United States’ 2018 Midterm election. The latest incarnation of the Green New Deal was originally sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) who spearheaded efforts to bring a resolution to the Senate floor. The Green New Deal was described as, “pairing labor programs with measures to combat the climate crisis.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Markey’s bill echoes that of the Green New Deal Task Force concepts memorialized in 2006 and 2010. It’s important to note that the 2018 Green New Deal is still in its infancy stage, but nonetheless a comparison between the two is inevitable:
