The plan isn't going anywhere unless someone explicitly adds in nuclear power and Amtrak upgrades to the mix. Congress has already spent the greater part of the past 30 years preparing for the SMR/Small Modular Reactor rollout in the mid 2020s, reneging on that or excluding it from the plan doesn't make it work at the most basic level. Ditto for building Yucca Mtn and telling Nevada to fuck off. Nuclear is absolutely necessary to accomplish a zero carbon future, especially when the government is already winding down solar/PV subsidies (per it's original plan passed ten years ago).
Amtrak is needed too simply because it's the political reality on the ground. No means-testable programs or generic loan office programs but an EXPLICIT promise to upgrade the national network and fully fund our long-distance trains. This message plays very well in rural areas and comprises the swing vote Cortez needs to make it into law. A clear path forward is fully committing money to CAHSR on the west coast, the NEC upgrade program (including new Hudson tunnels, a rebuilt Penn station, Penn-GCT service and a Boston north/south tunnel) in the northeast and SEHSR in the southeast.
She really, really, really needs to break the mold on this and deviate from core Dem policies if she wants to do it. She can't just push forward a full PV/wind subsidy program and expect it to work, because it will not especially when most Democrats are starting to be concerned with clean disposal problems inherit to both (which closely mirror early 70s concerns about nuclear waste storage).
By the way just to show how dead on arrival this is:
Even if Cortez got her tax hike, her own party will demand it go to Medicare For All plus a housing and jobs guarantee.
It really is upsetting to read this as a liberal, because it's not serious. Being against nuclear doesn't work and this plan would fully kill it, a move that would only help the gas industry since killing nuclear power would be much harder than killing renewables (which are much cheaper to write off, as they don't have the same huge capital costs). It just doesn't work.
Jose Hughes
Id take a gamble on this being a money laundering scheme for the commies.
Oliver Cook
They aren't that smart, because why bother with money laundering when you can make corruption legal? I mention this because it's what Obama was accused of doing with his stimulus package, which largely failed too:
FYI Dems, especially Cortez, have already turned on Tesla because they're not Unionized. Most, except Cortez herself, look at this whole thing as another mess that's not going to propel them forward since it's just continuing more of Obama's plans. It's all fun and games until the AFL gets mad, and notice how nuclear jobs are union while most PV manufacturing plants and installers are not.
Same for cap-and-trade. It works in California because it funds a specific project with specific, clear goals (CAHSR) as opposed to a general "buy solar now" package. To use a more specific example, the whole point of CAHSR is that it can engage in farebox recovery and thus let Caltrans better deal with Congress cutting their highway maintenance money. The Green New Deal doesn't do that, it just buys a lot of PV without any real plan to get prices down or phase-outs of technology at their end-of-life. It also does not do anything to prevent another Enron from forming, or dealing with mandatory "contingency" capacity which is how PG&E and SCE get around California's carbon laws.
On all levels it's lackluster. Including nuclear would help, but it needs more specifics on funding and emissions control.
Mason Moore
also this is probably the best criticism of it that I've read, from a mainstream source (BoTAS is about as mainstream as mainstream gets)
32,430/1,268 = 25.6 times the energy produce by Palo Verde yearly.
7.3 sq mi * 25.6 = 186.88 sq mi needed to produce the same energy as Palo Verde.
67,569.24/32,340 = 2.09 Palo Verdes to produce the energy needed for LA county (2017).
Thus:
186.88 sq mi * 2.09 = 390.58 sq mi needed for a solar farm in Southern CA to produce the same energy as 2.09 Palo Verdes and power LA county (2017)
390.58 sq mi/1,214 sq mi = 0.3217 * 100 = 32.17% or roughly 1/3 of the total area of Rhode Island of Rhode Island would be covered in solar panels. Math fags feel free to correct if I missed something or applied something incorrectly.
Crazy bitch thinks she's going to reforest the US in solar panels and turbines.
Michael Phillips
Honestly, these megaprojects wreak of Globalism. Its gonna end up in a world where the plebs are force fed insects and soylent, getting meat only once a year. Meanwhile the rich consume to their heart's content.
Asher Reyes
Just look at some of the plans:
AOC
Trump
Obama
All of these plans involve shoveling money at the same people.
Jaxson Allen
There's literally nothing wrong with megaprojects, but there's everything wrong with not having a clear plan for after the project is built. Hence why Biden's rail plans required it to fund either existing Amtrak lines or lines that would be self-sustaining, while also creating a funding mechanism for when their equipment has to be replaced or upgraded 30 years after initial construction.
Cortez's plan doesn't do that, it just throws money at PV manufacturers and expects everything to just work. It won't, especially when piles of unused/borken panels will be dumped in landfills and create the exact sort of love canal tier disaster environmentalists want to prevent.
Josiah King
This is a jewish shill. No. It doesn't. It's physically impossible and would not provide reliable energy. Coal and nuclear work 24/7/365. Wind works when there's wind, but not too much wind. Solar works half the time, and not when there are clouds. You're retarded. No. You fucking dumbass. The rare metals to do this DO NOT EXIST ON EARTH. It is PHYSICALLY. IMPOSSIBLE. No, communist, they will not exist anyway. No, "clean" energy will not become cheaper due to market demand. They don't. They plan to have people starve and freeze to death, you fucking imbecile. No. They don't. They plan to nationalize Monsanto and require all food to be processed and hormonally injected. You goddamn idiot. NO, WE DON'T SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT OWNING ALL INDUSTRY, YOU FUCKING SHILL. IT SAID TRILLION, YOU ILLITERATE FUCK. IT'S UNFUNDABLE. BY DESIGN. You weren't born before 1989, were you? The Soviet Union had people watch lightbulbs all day. That's what it means. Kill yourself.
