Frackenlooper Wants You To Know He's Not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez And That He Opposes The Green New Deal

Ed Markey's Tuesday night appearance with Chris Hayes was a pretty high energy explanation of the urgency of the Green New Deal-- in contrast to the Republican response to looming Climate Catastrophe. Earlier in the day, McTurtle had called a foolish stunt-vote. All the Democrats voted "present," other than 3 conservatives (+ Maine independent Angus King) who voted with the GOP for a meaningless 57-0 outcome. The bad Dems were the worst of the regular suspects: Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV) and poor Doug Jones (AL). McTurtle's point was something about how bad it is that all the Democratic senators running for president want to spend money to save mankind. Point taken.

But it was also a point taken by one of the most disliked of the Democratic candidates-- former Colorado Gov. Frackenlooper who has been faring badly in the Democratic primary polls. Here are his results for the 3 most recent (all this week):

• Fox News- zero
• Emerson (Iowa)- 1%
• Morning Consult (early primary states)- 1%

Frackenlooper wrote an OpEd for the Washington Post that coincided with the senate vote. He wants everyone to know he's against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal. This was the headline of his latest fundraising letter:

Ostensibly he's a Democrat so he doesn't dismiss the urgency of Climate Change. In fact he begins his OpEd by giving it a nod and razzing Trump, stating that "Climate change is a defining challenge of our time, and yet we have a president who is taking us in the wrong direction." Then he gets into his own wrong direction: "[G]iven the scope of the threat of global climate change, it is also imperative we approach it correctly. Some versions of the Green New Deal, such as the resolution from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that the Senate is set to vote on Tuesday, express laudable aims but also take an approach that limits our prospects for success. The resolution sets unachievable goals. We do not yet have the technology needed to reach “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions” in 10 years... Amid this technological innovation, we need to ensure that energy is not only clean but also affordable. Millions of Americans struggle with “energy poverty.”

In addition to technological barriers, the Ocasio-Cortez-Markey resolution sets the Green New Deal up for failure by shifting away from private decision-making and toward the public sector-- including multiple provisions with little connection to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the resolution seeks a job guarantee, with full benefits, for every person in the United States. That means the federal government would have to provide a job if the private sector did not. This provision, along with others, would produce a massive expansion of government that would likely be far too expensive and complex to execute effectively in the urgent time frame we are facing.

To achieve the kinds of innovations needed to tackle the climate crisis, government must not shun the private sector, but rather must work closely with industry and our nation’s great research universities. Only by harnessing the ingenuity and resources of our entire society will we find solutions and scale them rapidly to meet our ambitions. The Ocasio-Cortez-Markey resolution gives government the dominant role on investment decisions, but most of the gains we have seen in recent years on renewable energy have come from entrepreneurs and companies responding to incentives from the market and the federal government, not bending to federal mandates.

...Ocasio-Cortez and others have succeeded in galvanizing the country around climate change as never before. Now that we have this public support, it is imperative that we don’t abuse it. If climate change policy becomes synonymous in the U.S. psyche with higher utility bills, rising taxes and lost jobs, we will have missed our shot-- and we might not get another one before it’s too late. Just as we responded to the crisis of polio and the space race, we need to bring the private and public sector together to save the planet.

Kara Eastman, the progressive running for the Omaha congressional seat held by Trump puppet Don Bacon, told us that she's "proud to be aligned with the party that is now the party of ideas. We finally have bold policy agendas in front of us and I would hope that all Democratic candidates would embrace real change that actually puts people first. We don’t have time to wait. Climate change effects are becoming irreversible. Rather than running away from solutions because they may seem too bold, we need to come together to implement those solutions that will work." She speaks for most Democrats, even if not for the Blue Dogs and sell-outs like Hickenlooper.