On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed a massive executive order restructuring the federal government around his climate alarmist agenda. The move came days after Biden had canceled construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, costing thousands of jobs. While Biden’s climate order does not come close to implementing the full vision of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) $49 trillion Green New Deal, it does feature a few key aspects of AOC’s vision.
AOC celebrated Biden’s executive order, taking credit for some aspects of it.
When NBC News White House Correspondent Geoff Bennett noted that “much of Biden’s climate executive actions reflect major elements of the Green New Deal — tackling climate change while addressing economic/racial injustice — without actually *being the Green New Deal,” AOC responded, “It’s almost as if we helped shape the platform.”
During an interview on MSNBC, AOC said she was “extremely encouraged” by Biden’s actions so far. She said those actions signify “a good faith openness and relationship” with climate alarmist organizations.
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“It communicates that he meant what he said on the campaign trail that he would make climate change a central priority of his administration,” AOC added.
Biden’s climate order created an “Environmental Justice Interagency Council” to “prioritize environmental justice” and ensure that 40 percent of federal investments help “disadvantaged communities.” This council seems a clear nod to the Green New Deal, which aimed to marry big-government climate alarmist policies to intersectional identity politics, using the climate agenda to address alleged systemic racism, sexism, et cetera.
Yet AOC’s negotiations had another concrete impact on the climate plan, as well. AOC retweeted Mother Jones’ Kara Voght, who noted that “during the Biden-Sanders task force, [AOC and the pro-Green New Deal Sunrise Movement] founder [Varshini Prakash] sold [Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry] on a ‘climate corps’ to put young people to work—a swing at a Green New Deal.”
Indeed, Biden’s executive order included a Civilian Climate Corps to put Americans to work restoring public lands and waters.
Biden’s Climate Orders Will Flip America’s National Security on Its Head
The order also directed the federal government to put the so-called “climate crisis” at the center of U.S. foreign policy and national security concerns, it directed the government to create a National Climate Task Force to create a “whole-of-government” approach to the alleged crisis, it directed the federal government to transition to zero-emission vehicles, to block new oil and gas leases on public lands, and to create a federal bureaucracy to monitor “power plant communities.”
Biden’s climate agenda had already been extensive before he brought acolytes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to the table to craft a “unity agenda.”
In July 2019, AOC’s then-Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti let slip that “the Green New Deal… wasn’t originally a climate ching at all.” Instead, he said it is a “how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
Similarly, Kerry later admitted that even if Biden’s executive order succeeds and America goes to net-zero carbon emissions, that won’t be enough to solve the alleged climate crisis without other countries also stepping up, most notably India and China. Biden’s climate executive order appears to be a “how-do-you-change-the-entire-federal-government thing,” and it seems much of his agenda comes from AOC herself.
No wonder the “democratic” socialist cheered Biden’s executive order. It seems Uncle Joe from Scranton just pushed America one big step closer to a Green New Deal.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.