Bernie Sanders unveils $16 trillion Green New Deal plan

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has unveiled a transformative Green New Deal climate action plan that aims to eliminate fossil fuel use in the United States entirely by 2050.

Labeling the increasingly apparent effects of climate change “a national emergency,” Sanders seeks to direct a “$16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts, 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.”

The Sanders plan would completely decarbonize the country’s electrical grid and transportation systems with 100% renewable electricity by 2030, according to The New York Times, with full decarbonization for the American economy by 2050. That effort includes removing some $15 billion in annual subsidies for the fossil fuel industries, forcing fossil fuel companies to “pay for their pollution,” and “scaling back military sp...