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WASHINGTON (AP) – Any plan to adequately tackle climate change would cost at least $ 10 trillion, Republican Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday as she responded to a series of climate proposals presented by Democratic presidential candidates.
The New York Democrat, co-author of the Green New Deal, is perceived as an influential voice in climate policy, especially among Democrats. The Green New Deal would divert the US economy from fossil fuels such as oil and coal and replace them with renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
Sending to Capitol journalists, Ocasio-Cortez has for the first time proposed a reasonable price for efforts to combat climate change. While acknowledging that the figure "represents a ton" of money, she said, "I think we really need $ 10 trillion to have a chance" to make real progress in reducing gas emissions greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
"I do not think anyone wants to spend so much money," she added. "It's not a fun number to say. I'm not thrilled to say that we have to spend $ 10 trillion on the climate, but … it's just the scenario. "
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have rejected the Green New Deal as a government takeover of the economy, which could put the country out of business with the unrealistic goal achieve net net carbon emissions by 2030.
The American Action Forum, a think tank linked to Republicans, estimated that the Green New Deal would cost between $ 51,000 and $ 93 trillion over 10 years, a figure controversial by the plan's supporters.
Ocasio-Cortez said she was encouraged by the climate projects of Democratic presidential candidates, especially those of Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
"I think Jay Inslee is the reference climate plan we have right now," Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill on Tuesday. "It has scale, jobs and justice."
Inslee plans federal spending of $ 3 trillion over a decade, while Warren spends $ 2 trillion on green manufacturing. Former vice president, Joe Biden, is claiming $ 1.7 billion in federal spending for the next decade. According to Biden, his plan could be accompanied by a $ 3 billion private expenditure to allow the United States to virtually eliminate all carbon pollution by 2050, 20 years later than the timeframe. set by the Green New Deal.
"I think the whole climate plan field has yet to be pushed," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Wednesday. "I think it's just pushing to the scientific level … in what it takes to solve this problem."
Ocasio-Cortez, who has become a frequent target of Republican contempt at Capitol Hill and on cable television, said she knew her call to spend $ 10 trillion on climate change "is politically not popular "in both parties.
"People will call it unrealistic, and I do not think people understand how serious the problem is," she said.
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