Warren unveils $2 trillion 'green manufacturing' plan
DETROIT, Mich. — Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled the first of several plans that fall under the umbrella of “economic patriotism” — policies aimed at creating and promoting jobs, workers, and industries — proposing a whopping $2 trillion investment over ten years in green manufacturing, research, and trade.
That investment will result in more than one million new jobs over the same time period, Warren says, a claim bolstered by an independent analysis from Moody’s.
Her latest policy push comes ahead of two stops in Michigan Tuesday where Warren hopes to showcase her commitment to a Green New Deal while also making an economic argument in the nation’s industrial heartland.
Warren’s green manufacturing plan has three main pillars:
- Green Apollo Program: $400 billion in funding over ten years for clean energy research and development. Within this program, Warren would create a National Institute of Clean Energy, modeled after the National Institutes of Health. To ensure the wealth is spread around the country, Warren says money would be sent to land grand universities, to rural areas, and “areas that have seen the worst job losses in recent years.”
- Green Marshall Plan: This would create a new federal office “dedicated to selling America-made clean, renewable, and emission-free energy technology abroad” and include a $100 billion commitment to helping countries purchase and use that tech. Warren also advocates for the U.S. to end all support for international oil and gas projects through the Ex-Im Bank, as well as leverage American power in the World Bank to diverting investments from fossil fuel projects to clean energy projects.
- Green Industrial Mobilization: A $1.5 trillion federal commitment over 10 years to buy U.S.-made clean, renewable, emission-free products both for export, and use at the federal, state, and local levels. Why $1.5 trillion? Warren points out that at least that much is projected in spending on defense procurement over the next 10 years. “We should spend at least that much on purchasing American-made clean energy technology,” she writes.
Warren's plan also includes a labor standards/unionizing component as it relates to all manufactured products in the U.S. and all companies that receive federal contracts:
- all employees earn at least $15/hour;
- employees are guaranteed at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave;
- fair scheduling practices;
- and collective bargaining rights for all employees.
Warren plans to pay for the plan with her previously released Real Corporate Profits Tax, as well as eliminating subsidies to oil and gas companies, and closing corporate tax loopholes.