Democrats running for President are very vague about the Green New Deal that they all seem to favor. “Smart,” “energy-efficient,” and “environmentally friendly” sound great. But what if it means 320 sq ft per person living areas, no parking places, and shared kitchen facilities?
Single-family houses in the suburbs may be a thing of the past. Without cars, people will need to live close to work. Most people may be unable to afford to retrofit their homes to meet energy standards: the cost to meet California requirements for an average home is $58,000. And as demands for “renewable” energy production cause electricity bills to soar (like in Germany), few will be able to afford to heat or cool a large home. Walk-up stack-and-pack aPodments might be in your children’s future.
The Green New Deal is not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s original idea. It’s part of the UN’s Sustainable Development agenda. A French nongovernmental organization, Novethic, proposes forbidding all new construction of single-family homes except trailers.
Let’s not wait to pass the Deal before we find out what is in it.
For more on the Green New Deal, see Civil Defense Perspectives, January 2019.