We learned in this election is that you absolutely do NOT have to be pro-fracking to win in a redder state than Colorado. Biden proved that wrong, campaigning on ending fracking on public lands and speaking the truth, that we do need to get off of oil/fossil fuels. Or take Nikil Saval, the Green New Deal candidate who won the senate race in Pennsylvania this week. This could be said about Colorado and Coloradans
Our state is suffering from a crisis of economic inequality, ecological devastation, climate change, and public disinvestment. Most folks’ wages have stagnated, and many communities across our state suffer from deep poverty and despair. The climate crisis threatens the futures of people all over our state—none more so than frontline and vulnerable communities and young people—on top of the thousands of premature deaths and tens of billions of dollars of public health costs already caused by fossil fuel extraction and consumption. And our state government’s dramatic neglect of public services has led to toxic schools, unaffordable college, and crumbling infrastructure—all while the working class shoulders far too much of the state’s tax burden. A Green New Deal is the path we must follow to realize our rights, as humans and people of our state to clean air, clean water, clean transportation, healthy food, renewable natural resources, and a stable and livable climate. We must make these rights concrete realities in the lives of all. The Green New Deal is not one specific policy, but a recognition that our three crises are inseparable, and a commitment to addressing them at once: by attacking injustice, creating jobs, and empowering workers; by halting climate change, reversing environmental injustice, and caring for the natural world; and by investing in the public goods and services that working class people need to survive and prosper.
This Pennsylvania Senator supports eliminating coal-generated electricity by 2025 and achieving 100% clean electricity by 2030. Likewise, the GridLab, NRDC, Sierra Club study for Colorado and western region says the most cost-effective way to meet our climate goals and statutory GHG reductions of 26% by 2025 is clean electricity and electrification: close coal by 2025 and getting to 98-99% clean electricity by 2030. He supports a climate equity fund by which 40% of benefits and investment during the transition are directed to frontline and vulnerable communities, including communities of color, the poor, and deindustrialized communities.
Please do not ignore the Dems who brought you here and bring about the downfall of the Democratic party. Kasich Republicans did not put that state or any place over the top. It was a lot of hard work by everyone else and if Dems don’t deliver on making the energy transition good for everyone, rather than the extractors and the top 1%, Dems will lose and will deserve to lose in the future. Let’s understand what the concerns and fears of folks are in rural areas, and most of all: what a good transition looks like for them!
