While the plan doesn’t explicitly call for a ban on fossil fuels, as some early backers had hoped, Ocasio-Cortez’s office has made it clear that the plan doesn’t leave a path forward for the fuel source, which a fact sheet on the plan said would make “new fossil fuel infrastructure or industries obsolete.”
Ocasio-Cortez Clout In Pelosi Era Gets Test On ‘Green New Deal’
But that wasn’t enough to stave off criticism from environmental groups like Friends of the Earth. While the group’s president, Erich Pica, praising the resolution as “a good first step,” but said it was incomplete. “By failing to expressly call for an end of the fossil fuel era, the resolution misses an opportunity to define the scope of the challenge,” Pica said.
The fact sheet also makes explicitly clear there is “no space” for nuclear power in the plan amid a goal of eventually achieving 100 percent renewable energy.
“This means that the Green New Deal will not include investing in new nuclear power plants and will transition away from nuclear to renewable power sources only,” according to the document, which also raised the prospect of decommissioning existing nuclear plants in favor of renewable energy sources.
That provision drew a response from a nuclear trade group.
“Any approach to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions requires all clean energy technologies, including nuclear, to work together to address that urgent problem,” Maria Korsnick, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute said in a statement. The group, which includes Westinghouse Electric Co. and Exelon Corp, said nuclear energy generates more than half the nation’s carbon-free electricity.
Supporters say the resolution’s measures are needed to avert a coming climate catastrophe already being presaged by devastating storms, raging wildfires and intense heat waves.
No Nuclear Power, Ocasio-Cortez Says In Green New Deal
Among its provisions: