Top Kamala Surrogate Says Green New Deal 'Will Be The Vision Under President Harris'

Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) declared that the Green New Deal "will be the vision under President Harris" in his remarks at the Democratic National Convention.

Khanna's comment came during a climate change panel held Monday at the DNC, where several fellow Democratic lawmakers and prominent climate activists gave speeches in support of Kamala Harris's presidential bid. But the California congressman, who notably serves as a campaign surrogate for Harris, was the only speaker to invoke the Green New Deal, a potentially thorny topic as the Harris campaign attempts to cast her as a moderate.

"All the Green New Deal says is we're going to build new industry—new steel, new aluminum, new iron—new industry in America," said Khanna. "We're going to create new jobs in the places that were deindustrialized, and it's going to be good for the climate, and it's going to have less carbon footprint."

"That will be the vision under President Harris," he added. "No fossil fuel subsidies, a holding accountable of Big Oil, and a reindustrialization of this country that's going to make America lead as a climate champion in the world."

Khanna didn't respond to a request for comment.

The remarks from a top campaign surrogate are the latest evidence that, as president, Harris would pursue Green New Deal policies, even as she attempts to distance herself from the progressive environmental positions she has supported in the past. For example, anonymous campaign officials have stated that Harris no longer backs a ban on fracking or a federal job guarantee, the Washington Examiner reported. Both were provisions of the Green New Deal.

Harris, however, was among the handful of Democrats listed as original cosponsors of the Green New Deal after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.) introduced it in early 2019. The bill came amid calls from climate activists to pass aggressive policies that would radically curb carbon emissions.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Harris became the first Democratic candidate to endorse the Green New Deal, even vowing to ax the filibuster to pass the bill.

"We must have and adopt a Green New Deal," Harris said during a July 2019 debate.

Then, in one of her final actions before joining the Biden campaign as the vice presidential nominee in August 2020, Harris and Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Climate Equity Act, a bill aimed at targeting government climate investments toward "communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis." The Sunrise Movement said at the time that the legislation would be "foundational to the Green New Deal."

Although the Green New Deal itself is just 14 pages and includes very few details about how it would achieve its emissions goals, it outlines six broad pillars: creating a low-carbon electric grid, a net-zero transportation sector, a guaranteed jobs program, a universal health care system, a green housing program, and an initiative ensuring food security. To achieve those pillars, the legislation would subsidize green energy industries and essentially end all fossil fuel extraction.

The legislation, according to an analysis conducted by the American Action Forum, would cost at least $52 trillion and up to $93 trillion. The low-end estimate is nearly double the United States' gross domestic product recorded in 2023.

A separate analysis from the Heritage Foundation concluded that the Green New Deal would further cost the average family about $165,000 and eliminate 5.2 million jobs.

"The Green New Deal’s government-managed energy plan poses the risk of expansive, disastrous damage to the economy—hitting working Americans the hardest," the report stated.

The Harris campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.

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