Sanders Uses Hurricane Dorian to Push Green New Deal

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt campaigns at the Circle 9 Ranc
AP Photo/Mary Schwalm
Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is using Hurricane Dorian – the monster storm that pummeled the Bahamas and is now creeping toward the U.S. mainland – to push his $16 trillion Green New Deal proposal.

Hurricane Dorian, now a Category 3 storm, is slowly making its way to the U.S. coast, but Sanders is using its slow approach to warn Americans it is “only going to get worse” unless the U.S. takes action.

“When we talk about a climate crisis this is what we mean,” Sanders wrote, retweeting environmentalist Bill McKibben, who noted that Dorian was one of the strongest storms recorded in the Atlantic.

“Our people are in danger. And it’s only going to get worse,” Sanders warned. “We have no choice but to pass a Green New Deal”:

Sanders unveiled his massive Green New Deal proposal last month, which calls for “a historic $16.3 trillion public investment … in line with the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII, but with an explicit choice to include black, indigenous and other minority communities who were systematically excluded in the past.”

While the number sounds astronomical, Sanders believes doing nothing will cost far more, estimating the U.S. will lose “$34.5 trillion in economic activity” by 2100 if no action is taken.

As Breitbart News reported:

Sanders’ exhaustive plan covers virtually every angle of the climate change “crisis,” from promising to “fully electrify and decarbonize” the transportation sector, to investing $1.12 billion in “tribal land access and extension programs,” to providing “oral translation assistance to USDA, FDA, and DOJ offices for non-English speaking farmers,” to pouring $200 billion in the Green Climate Fund.

Sanders also uses his plan as a pitch to drastically expand existing entitlement programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Low -Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

It remains unclear which aspect of his plan would, in effect, reduce the number and intensity of hurricanes. The massive storms have been developing since the beginning of time, with some records dating back hundreds of years. While the first official hurricane warning in the U.S. did not come until 1873 and the U.S. did not actively begin naming hurricanes until the 1950s, the meteorological events are not a new phenomenon.

Hurricane Dorian is slowly approaching the U.S. coast, although current projections show the storm’s center staying offshore Florida. However, there will still be significant impacts, including life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds. The coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas also remain at risk:

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