Presidential hopeful and Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Tuesday she will vote for the “Green New Deal” resolution when it comes up in the Senate but stressed that she doesn’t back some of the more extreme positions of some of its supporters, such as ending air travel.
“The ‘Green New Deal?’ I see it as, by the way, I see it as aspirational. I see it as a jumpstart,” said Klobuchar, D-Minn., during an interview Tuesday on Fox News. “I would vote yes, but I would also, if it got down to the nitty-gritty of an actual legislation as opposed to ‘Oh, here are goals we have,’ that would be different.”
Democrats offered conflicting views of the “Green New Deal” resolution to the public this week. The resolution itself called for a World War II-level mobilization to fight climate change and create millions of new jobs. But a summary found on the website of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., which was later taken down, said the goal was to make cows and air travel obsolete.
Klobuchar made it clear she doesn’t support going that far.
“I am for a jumpstart of the discussion and a framework, as Sen. Markey has described. I’m not for reducing air travel,” Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar spoke after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the resolution would be brought up for a vote, in an effort to put Democrats on the record on the controversial measure.
Klobuchar is one of the 11 Democratic co-sponsors of the resolution in the Senate.
The measure outlines a 10-year plan to reduce carbon emissions and replace fossil fuel with renewable energy. It also calls for “meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources,” but Klobuchar said it was unlikely that there would be zero greenhouse gas emissions in the near future.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen in the next few years,” Klobuchar said. “You can imagine by new technology and by the way, that includes nuclear and everything else, that we could get to a better place.”
Instead, Klobuchar said she would like the U.S. to re-enter the international Paris climate agreement that President Trump announced the U.S. would no longer be a part of in 2017.
“I would like to see is on day one to get back into the international climate change agreement. We are the only country not in it,” Klobuchar said. “I would like to see us put in place those clean power rules again that would bring us a 30 percent reduction. I think those are doable things that we’ve worked on.”
It is unclear when the Senate will vote on the “Green New Deal” resolution.