Green New Lockdown

Anyone wondering what the Green New Deal would actually be like should just look around, because it’s a lot like America amid the coronavirus crisis.

Industry largely shut down? Check. Commuting at a minimum? Check. Much of the workforce idled? Check. Carbon emissions way down and the US oil industry sinking toward bankruptcy? Check. Federal money flying out the door by the trillions to try to cushion the economic effects? Check.

No, the Green New Deal wouldn’t shutter schools or make mask-wearing mandatory. It wouldn’t even directly close restaurants or other businesses — except most businesses in the energy sector.

But it would quite intentionally devastate the coal, oil and gas industries and make driving your car prohibitively expensive. And the knock-on effect of vastly more expensive electricity would slam other industries (even ones going gangbusters now to supply the locked-down nation’s needs).

The GND would have Uncle Sam paying millions of workers and politically favored companies, too.

Last year, a study co-authored by a former head of the Congressional Budget Office found the GND’s 10-year sticker price could top $93 trillion.

In fact, with America on lockdown and the economy shrinking (GDP fell nearly 5 percent in the first quarter and might plunge as much as 40 percent in the second), Congress has been swooping in with multitrillion-dollar rescues: $2.2 trillion in March and maybe another $1 trillion in the coming weeks.

Yet to pay for the Green New Deal, which presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden calls a “crucial framework” for fighting climate change, Washington would have to triple those outlays — every year for a decade. (And the fiscal bloodletting wouldn’t end there.)

Lockdown orders feel like unprecedented government intrusion? Well, the GND’s aims are even more extensive.

While Americans today avoid air travel, for instance, the GND would essentially ban airplanes altogether. Gasoline cars, too. And anything else that burns fossil fuel.

Steak lovers would long for today’s virussparked meat shortages after the GND did away with flatulent cows.

And the tens of millions out of work thanks to the lockdown would be a pittance compared to those unemployed under Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez’s plan, which offers “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work,” as a fact sheet unveiled with it said. The loss of freedoms under the GND would also surpass those lost under social distancing, as bureaucrats dictated how you lived, ate, traveled and worked.

Indeed, the sacrifices would have to be greater than now: Even with the global economic shutdown, carbon emissions are projected to fall only 6 percent, while some analysts believe they need to drop close to 8 percent to beat climate change.

Advocates see the emissions dip as a bright side to the pandemic: “This is what ‘rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’ looks like,” tweeted noted climate activist Eric Holthaus. “We’re doing it. It’s possible!”

Actually, it’s hard to see any bright side to the outbreak, but it does offer a useful taste of life under the GND — not one many Americans would care for.