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For Immediate Release
February, 06 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Waleed Shahid, waleedshahid@justicedemocrats.com
Justice Democrats Proud To Endorse AOC and Markey's Green New Deal, Call on House, Senate and 2020 Democrats To Endorse The Resolution
Following Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey's release
WASHINGTON
Following Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey's release early Thursday morning of a Green New Deal resolution, Alexandra Rojas, Executive Director of Justice Democrats, released the following statement:
"Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal represents an earthquake in the Democratic Party and American politics where a working class Latina bartender from the Bronx is now proposing and leading the most serious solution to rewrite America's social contract and stave off climate disaster.
Any Democrat running for President who wants to be taken seriously on climate and economic policy needs to back Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal resolution.
The Green New Deal offers a positive solution to match the scale of our nation's biggest crises - climate change, structural racism, and skyrocketing inequality. It's time for our leaders to join the center of energy in the Democratic Party and prioritize our planet and its people over the profits of fossil fuel billionaires."
Justice Democrats will be calling on all Democrats in Congress and running for President to support this specific Green New Deal resolution.
Justice Democrats is also supporting a 15-city tour and a 50-state campaign led by the Sunrise Movement starting in early primary states to build the political and public support for the Green New Deal.
Ocasio Cortez's Green New Deal resolution is a 10-year plan to jumpstart the complete transition of our society away from fossil fuels to renewable and clean energy sources. The resolution outlines the plan to virtually eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from every sector of the economy through a World War 2 scale mobilization of our economy and society to create the renewable energy infrastructure in the timeline outlined by leading climate scientists as part of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
The IPCC report also noted that while the scale of the mobilization required to tackle climate change is unprecedented, the speed is similar to government-led efforts in the United States to mobilize for World War II.
This resolution sets out a non-exhaustive list of several major projects that need to be completed as part of a just transition. These projects include upgrading virtually every home and building for energy efficiency, building 100% greenhouse gas neutral power generation systems, removing greenhouse gases from industry and agriculture, and more.
The Green New Deal builds on the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Second Bill of Rights," which called for constitutionally guaranteed rights to: a job, a living wage, food, clothing recreation, the right to trade free of monopolies, housing, health care, education, and more. The Green New Deal is a plan to make a full-scale transition of our economy that puts jobs and justice first. This plan will require a strong social safety net so that every U.S. person can make this transition comfortably and nobody falls through the cracks in the process.
According to recent polling, 92 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans support the Green New Deal. Nearly every major Democratic presidential contender in 2020 have said they back the Green New Deal including: Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Jeff Merkley, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and Jay Inslee. 45 Democrats in the House and over three hundred organizations backed the original resolution for a select committee Over 300 local and state politicians have called for a federal Green New Deal.
The Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launched their call for a Green New Deal at a sit-in at Leader Nancy Pelosi's office in Washington on November 13, 2018. The Sunrise Movement led another round of sit-ins on December 10th where 143 young leaders were arrested for a moral act of civil disobedience at Pelosi and Hoyer's offices in Washington.
A total of 43 Democrats in the House of Representatives now back Ocasio-Cortez's proposal for a Select Committee on the Green New Deal. The Select Committee proposal also states that no one member can be appointed who receives donations from the fossil fuel industry.
Justice Democrats is recruiting and supporting progressive Democrats all over the country, starting with Congress. We're working to transform the Democratic Party while building independent power. We do this by running primary challengers against out-of-touch Democratic incumbents and organizing to hold the party accountable to our issues.
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US President Donald Trump left no doubt on Saturday that a—or perhaps the—primary driver of his decision to illegally attack Venezuela, abduct its president, and pledge to indefinitely run its government was his desire to control and exploit the country's oil reserves, which are believed to be the largest in the world.
Over the course of Trump's lengthy press conference following Saturday's assault, the word "oil" was mentioned dozens of times as the president vowed to unleash powerful fossil fuel giants on the South American nation and begin "taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground"—with a healthy cut of it going to the US "in the form of reimbursement" for the supposed "damages caused us" by Venezuela.
"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, and start making money for the country," Trump said. "We're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be."
Currently, Chevron is the only US-based oil giant operating in Venezuela, whose oil industry and broader economy have been badly hampered by US sanctions. In a statement on Saturday, a Chevron spokesperson said the company is "prepared to work constructively with the US government during this period, leveraging our experience and presence to strengthen US energy security."
Other oil behemoths, some of which helped bankroll Trump's presidential campaign, are likely licking their chops—even if they've been mostly quiet in the wake of the US attack, which was widely condemned as unlawful and potentially catastrophic for the region. Amnesty International said Saturday that "the stated US intention to run Venezuela and control its oil resources" likely "constitutes a violation of international law."
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Thomas O'Donnell, an energy and geopolitical strategist, told Reuters that "the company that probably will be very interested in going back [to Venezuela] is Conoco," noting that an international arbitration tribunal has ordered Caracas to pay the company around $10 billion for alleged "unlawful expropriation" of oil investments.
The Houston Chronicle reported that "Exxon, America’s largest oil company, which has for years grown its presence in South America, would be among the most likely US oil companies to tap Venezuela’s deep oil reserves. The company, along with fellow Houston giant ConocoPhillips, had a number of failed contract attempts with Venezuela under Maduro and former President Hugo Chavez."
Elizabeth Bast, executive director of the advocacy group Oil Change International, said in a statement Saturday that the Trump administration's escalation in Venezuela "follows a historic playbook: undermine leftist governments, create instability, and clear the path for extractive companies to profit."
"The most powerful multinational fossil fuel corporations stand to benefit from these aggressions, and US oil and gas companies are poised to exploit the chaos and carve up one of the world's most oil-rich territories," said Bast. "The US must stop treating Latin America as a resource colony. The Venezuelan people, not US oil executives, must shape their country’s future."
US Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said that the president's own words make plain that his attack on Venezuela and attempt to impose his will there are "about trying to grab Venezuela's oil for Trump's billionaire buddies."
In a statement, US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed that sentiment, calling Trump's assault on Venezuela "rank imperialism."
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Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed the role of interim president following the US abduction of Nicolás Maduro, said in a televised address Saturday that "we will never again be a colony of any empire," defying the Trump administration's plan to indefinitely control Venezuela's government and exploit its vast oil reserves.
“We are determined to be free,” declared Rodríguez, who demanded that the US release Maduro from custody and said he is still Venezuela's president.
“What is being done to Venezuela is barbaric," she added.
Rodríguez's defiant remarks came after US President Donald Trump claimed he is "designating various people" to run Venezuela's government, suggested American troops could be deployed, and threatened a "second wave" of attacks on the country if its political officials don't bow to the Trump administration's demands.
Trump also threatened "all political and military figures in Venezuela," warning that "what happened to Maduro can happen to them." Maduro is currently detained in Brooklyn and facing fresh US charges.
Rodríguez's public remarks contradicted the US president's claim that she privately pledged compliance with the Trump administration's attempts to control Venezuela's political system and oil infrastructure. The interim president delivered her remarks alongside top Venezuelan officials, including legislative and judicial leaders, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, a projection of unity in the face of US aggression.
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"The 'Trump corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine—applied in recent hours with violent force over the skies of Caracas—is the single greatest threat to peace and prosperity that the Americas confront today," said Progressive International.
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US President Donald Trump and top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, characterized Saturday's assault on Venezuela and abduction of the country's president as a warning shot in the direction of Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American nations.
During a Saturday press conference, Trump openly invoked the Monroe Doctrine—an assertion of US dominance of the Western Hemisphere—and said his campaign of aggression against Venezuela represented the "Donroe Doctrine" in action.
In his unwieldy remarks, Trump called out Colombian President Gustavo Petro by name, accusing him without evidence of "making cocaine and sending it to the United States."
"So he does have to watch his ass," the US president said of Petro, who condemned the Trump administration's Saturday attack on Venezuela as "aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America."
Petro responded defiantly to the possibility of the US targeting him, writing on social media that he is "not worried at all."
In a Fox News appearance earlier Saturday, Trump also took aim at the United States' southern neighbor, declaring ominously that "something's going to have to be done with Mexico," which also denounced the attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.
"She is very frightened of the cartels," Trump said of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. "So we have to do something."
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Rubio, for his part, focused on Cuba—a country whose government he has long sought to topple.
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That the Trump administration wasted no time threatening other nations as it pledged to control Venezuela indefinitely sparked grave warnings, with the leadership of Progressive International cautioning that "this armed attack on Venezuela is not an isolated event."
"It is the next step in the United States' campaign of regime change that stretches from Caracas to Havana—and an attack on the very principle of sovereign equality and the prospects for the Zone of Peace once established by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States," the coalition said in a statement. "This renewed declaration of impunity from Washington is a threat to all nations around the world."
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