New study reveals the crippling economic burden of the Green New Deal on average American households
The Green New Deal, a policy proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that seeks to radically transform American energy consumption habits, would economically cripple the average American, according to a new study.
The study by libertarian think thank, Competitive Enterprise Institute, which was published Tuesday, discovered the Green New Deal, if implemented as currently proposed, would cost the average household $70,000 in just the first year.
After five years, most Americans could expect an economic burden nearing $250,000 to cover increased costs in electricity and substantial upgrades to vehicles and housing.
Alaskan residents would be hit even harder, the study found, due to the state's remoteness. They could expect to pay more than $100,000 during the first year of the program, with an additional $292,000 over the next four years.
The study investigated how transforming energy consumption to comply with the Green New Deal's parameters would impact Americans in five representative states: Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Alaska.
With regard to upgrading residential, business, and industrial buildings, another mandate under the Green Neal Deal, the costs become astronomical:
- Pennsylvania: $2 trillion
- Florida: $1.387 trillion
- Alaska: $533 billion
- New Mexico: $352 billion
- New Hampshire: $102 billion
Similar to other Green New Deal cost estimation studies, CEI warns their projections may underestimate the full economic burden because the Green New Deal is "so broad and open-ended that the list of potential programs necessary to implement the program is limited by the capacity of legislators to imagine a new government program."
"Economists and experts have been warning us for months about the devastating effects of the Green New Deal, and now we have the numbers to prove it," Daniel Turner, who co-authored the study, said. "This study only calculates a fraction of the cost of Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez's radical plan, which amounts to a socialist free-for-all with no regard for the American taxpayer."
The Heritage Foundation said in March the Green New Deal would place "hard-to-quantify costs" on Americans, while making little actual difference to the climate.
