Bozeman group rallies for Green New Deal
BOZEMAN, Mont. — A small group of Bozeman residents gathered at Senator Steve Daines office Thursday who say action needs to be taken now to curb climate change.
"I do not believe Steve Daines really agrees with climate change and what it entails," said rally organizer Andy Boyd.
Greg Findley, one of the rallygoers cited the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report as cause for concern.
"We have less than 12 years to take severe action to curb carbon emissions to keep climate change to just bad from truly terrible," he said.
The group is a branch-off of the Sunrise Movement, which supports The Green New Deal, introduced by House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey.
The Green New Deal calls for a 10-year national mobilization plan to make the country carbon-neutral across the economic sectors while creating sustainable jobs.
The group had a printed statement that they shared with Senator Daines aides, which among other things asked for collaboration with Montana's ranchers to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector, and upgrading existing buildings and transportation to energy efficient models.
Skeptics of the Green New Deal say the plan can't be achieved in 10 years, others say it's too expensive.
To date not all of democratic leadership is fully on board.
As far as Montana's concerned, we know there's going to be issues, it's not going to be congruent with every single thing that we do here, but we're willing to compromise, again this is a vision," said Boyd.
NBC Montana reached out to Senator Daines office for comment on the Green New Deal.
In a statement a spokesperson called it a "Lofty idea that disregards the significant impacts on hard working Montanans making a living at our mines, the millions in tax revenues from energy development that our counties and state rely on, and Montana families who budget on affordable electricity rates."
