The Green New Deal Is About Government Control, Not the Environment: Expert

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) announce the Green New Deal resolution at a press conference outside the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 7, 2019. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Marc Morano, author of the book “Green Fraud: Why the Green New Deal is Even Worse Than You Think,” told The Epoch Times’ “Crossroads” program that climate change-fighting policies proposed under the Green New Deal framework are part of a broader thrust to push the economy off its free market foundations and control “every aspect of your life.” He also predicted that, while the Biden administration has distanced itself from the Green New Deal, it is already looking to adopt related policies.

Morano argued that the Green New Deal framework, which took the form of a House resolution sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in 2019, is essentially a “domestic copy” of the United Nations Agenda 21 initiative, which has been superseded by Agenda 2030 (pdf).

“This is the idea that the United Nations came up with—and the progressive left—that the earth can’t be left with capitalism. Essentially, that capitalism and climate and environment are incompatible,” Morano said.

“Therefore, you need a host of centrally-planned bureaucrats empowered not just in environmental and climate decisions, but in every aspect of your life, to the size of your home to what appliances you use, to what cars you drive,” he said.

Morano said there have been talks among proponents of the Green New Deal that range from abolishing private car ownership and the internal combustion engine, to shifting away from eating natural meat in favor of plant-based and lab-grown substitutes, as some environmentalists and scientists have proposed.

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who has emerged as a champion of climate change fighting initiatives like carbon-removal technologies, said in a recent interview with Technology Review that “all rich countries should move to 100 percent synthetic beef.”

“They’re pushing insect eating,” Morano said, referring to arguments, such as that made by the Environment Journal, that “feeding the world’s growing population will require a radical re-balancing of the global food supply chain” and “foods made from insects, worms, and grubs may be rising up the menu.”

And, as The Scientist magazine put it in an article: “Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and reducing child mortality rates, can be directly addressed by expanding consumption of edible insects.”

“It affects how you travel,” Morano said, adding, “we’re now being told that under a climate emergency, you can’t travel unless it’s morally justifiable.”

“It’s going to affect your thermostat, economics, socialization,” Morano said, adding that he believes that under the policies proposed under the Green New Deal, “every aspect of your life is going to be managed in order to benefit planet earth.”

During his presidential campaign, President Joe Biden denied backing the Green New Deal, saying instead that he has his own plan, which he said was different from the “radical Green New Deal.” Still, the Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice references the controversial legislative proposal as its underpinnings.

“Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected,” says a description on Biden’s campaign website.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Washington on March 15, 2021. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Moreno said that, while the Biden administration distanced itself from the Green New Deal, he believes there will be a push to implement key parts of it. He predicts this will follow two tracks—one overt, in the form of legislation that will incorporate parts of the Green New Deal, and another “behind the scenes,” which is already visible in the bevy of executive orders and actions, such as axing the Keystone XL Pipeline project and a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands.

“There’s still going to be a coming Green New Deal that’s going to be introduced in both houses,” Moreno said. “And of course, Democrats control both houses, and it’s gonna be a huge legislative battle.”

The less overt form of implementation has to do with what Moreno described as mandating all federal agencies to treat climate change as a key focus of operations.

“Every agency of the Biden administration—from Interior to State Department to Defense—is going to be a ‘climate agency,’” he said. “In other words, every agency is first and foremost ... they’re going to be thinking about climate change.”

Biden, in a Jan. 27 executive order, appeared to say as much: “It is the policy of my Administration that climate considerations shall be an essential element of United States foreign policy and national security.”

The president has promised an “all-of-government” approach to fight climate change that would require federal agencies from the Defense Department to the Treasury to help the administration achieve its goal of sharply slashing nationwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Such an interagency approach could help Biden make headway on global warming priorities without having to rely on sweeping climate legislation that would be hard to pass in a divided Congress.

“Every agency is a climate agency now,” said Sam Ricketts, co-founder of Evergreen Action, an advocacy group that advised Biden’s transition team on climate change.

Moreno argued that the best way to address greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental issues is not through a top-down, regulatory approach, but by unleashing the private sector to adopt innovative technologies.

He argued against a heavy-handed regulatory approach to combat climate change, warning that if progressives “get their way,” there would be “climate lockdowns” of the kind that have been seen under the COVID-19 pandemic.