Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stated that “climate change” was the cause of recent flooding in New York City.
Recently, a video of a woman climbing through a flooded New York City subway went viral on social media. The water had a dark brown color with various debris floating on its surface.
Commenting on the video, Ocasio-Cortez touted the importance of combating climate change.
“The Green New Deal, which is a blueprint to create millions of good jobs rebuilding infrastructure to stem climate change & protect vulnerable communities, is unrealistic,” she said sarcastically. “Instead we will do the adult thing, which is take orders from fossil fuel execs &make you swim to work.”
“The Green New Deal, which is a blueprint to create millions of good jobs rebuilding infrastructure to stem climate change & protect vulnerable communities, is unrealistic.”
“Instead we will do the adult thing, which is take orders from fossil fuel execs &make you swim to work.” https://t.co/tVdCWTLZBd
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 8, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez was not alone. In a comment retweeted by the lawmaker, activist group Public Citizen advised followers to “remember like two weeks ago when conservatives tried to convince us that infrastructure had nothing to do with the climate crisis.”
remember like two weeks ago when conservatives tried to convince us that infrastructure had nothing to do with the climate crisis https://t.co/rOrycqSbz5
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) July 8, 2021
The New York City Subway is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — a public benefit corporation owned by New York state, not the federal government.
The Green New Deal — the signature legislative proposal of Ocasio-Cortez’s career — has a price tag of $93 trillion. As the American Action Forum details, the plan includes “a 10-year transition to an exclusively low-carbon energy electricity grid” and “enough high-speed rail transit available that air travel becomes unnecessary” — but also “union jobs with a family-sustaining wage,” “adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States,” “universal health care,” “guaranteed housing for every American,” and “food security for every person in the United States.”
The legislation would attempt to meet all of the power demand in the United States “through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” within the next decade.
However, some of Ocasio-Cortez’s more recent proposals for green energy have been even more ambitious. During a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee last week, the legislator recommended immediately closing down a Puerto Rican coal plant that produces 20% of the island’s electricity.
Center for Industrial Progress Founder and President Alex Epstein — who testified during the hearing — warned Ocasio-Cortez that rapidly pushing the island into green energy solutions “would make Puerto Rico into truly a consistently third-world country.”
“It is a truly existential threat if you threaten the energy supply,” he commented in a subsequent video response. “We’ve seen that a little bit in California, even more in Texas this year where it’s not a livable environment if the electricity isn’t on — and people in Puerto Rico live with that on a daily basis.”
“Abuela” — Ocasio-Cortez’s grandmother — lives in the Puerto Rican town of Arecibo. Whether Abuela’s home is powered by coal remains unclear.