Concepts for a New Green Deal

Thank you to Steve Nickerson for compiling and submitting this article.

 

1.     Elections:

   Elect leaders who will do our bidding:

•      Get Big Money out of Politics:

Pay politicians with public money (instead of bribes from special interests);

Set strict limits on campaign expenses;

Parties funded based on their % of the national popular vote;

Candidates would be reimbursed for campaign expenses if they receive more than (? %) of the popular vote in their riding;

Only individual voters (on the voters list) would be allowed to make political donations;

Donations to an individual candidate would be passed on to a Party if/when the candidate is reimbursed for campaign expenses.

•     Create a National Climate Emergency Council:

After the upcoming election allow each political party to appoint members to this body based on their percentage of the national popular vote;

These people should be selected based on their expertise in the various disciplines needed to implement the transition to a green economy;

Ideally:

Lists of each party’s nominees could be published before the election;

Debates among these candidates should be held so the electorate can judge their suitability and use that information to help inform their vote;

 

2.   Funding:

•     Funding for infrastructure:

Reinstate the Bank of Canada as the (only ?) source of infrastructure funding, thus keeping all infrastructure in the public domain.

These funds would be:

Grants or, maybe just forgivable or interest free loans;

Available to Federal, Provincial & Municipal governments and agencies;

Available to Individuals for:

Skill enhancement (see Technology, below);

Green Initiatives;

Cultural Initiatives;

* A Guaranteed Minimum Income would help all of the above;

•   Funding for Green Initiatives:
  

           A Serious Carbon Tax;

Revenue Neutral but

High enough to meet the goal of carbon neutrality before 2050 (preferably 2030);

Start high enough to eliminate the Federal Sales Tax (~$54.00 / ton);

If that’s not getting the job done raise it until it works and return the proceeds to citizens via income tax, or rebates, (or ?).

          Green Tariffs:

The only equitable Carbon Tax would be one imposed globally, (preferably by the United Nations thereby funding its operations). However, as that is unlikely to happen, we would have to impose it unilaterally by establishing import duties on goods from countries not living up to their responsibilities according to agreed International Conventions;

Countries not party to these Conventions would be assessed based on their excess carbon emissions;

Green House Gas levels can be determined by satellite (but don’t count on delinquent countries for the satellites);

Support for countries without the resources to achieve carbon neutrality on their own.

          A “Tobin Tax” on activities that produce nothing useful:

Currency Speculation;

Short term trading of Stocks, Bonds & Futures;

Real Estate Speculation;

         General Funding:

Develop a more equitable income tax system;

Perhaps, if the highest earners were limited to (some multiple) of the income of the lowest the greed at the top would drag up those at the bottom;

i.e. – At 100x – If the guaranteed minimum is $20,000 a top earner would get to keep $2,000,000.

 

3.   Subsidies:

•  Subsidize the Citizen, not the Industry:

           Guaranteed Minimum Income;

Entry level jobs would become much less costly to employers;

Citizens would be better able to retrain, relocate, or to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities;

Costs of managing our various support systems should be much reduced.

•  Subsidies for the Green Transition:

If the carbon tax is not enough to force the transition within the necessary time frame and to encourage industries in these fields offer incentives for:

Green Energy: Wind, Solar, Hydro, Heat Pumps, Fuel Cells, Batteries, etc;

Electrifying transportation: Cars, Trucks, Trains, Shipping, Aircraft, etc;

Housing efficiency upgrades, Insulation, Air quality, Heating, etc.

•  No subsidies or new infrastructure for GHG emitting technologies:

Provinces with fossil fuels already accessible (existing wells and mines) could sell them via the infrastructure already in place but should leave the rest in the ground until technologies are available to render them GHG free (Carbon Capture?) or to make durable goods from those raw materials;

Oil workers could be utilized to cap old wells and generally clean up the mess left by big oil while they retrain for useful jobs in the new economy.

 

4.    Monopolies and companies “Too Big to Fail”:

•    Only countries should be too big to fail, anything else should be nationalized or broken up before it approaches this size;
•    Nationalization should be considered for communication and transportation infrastructure;

i.e.  Cellphone networks, Pipelines, Electricity Transmission, Railways, etc.

 

5.   Legislative Green Initiatives:

•    Right to Repair – Possibility of Repair – Ease of Repair;

Legislate the availability of detailed manuals;

Limit the need for specialized tools or software;

Require parts be available for the life of the vehicle or device.

•   Packaging:

Should be minimized or eliminated;

Returned to producer for reuse or recycling.

•  Garbage:

Full cycle management of material goods should be possible for most things;

For the rest and until then:

Free Pick-up of everything to keep it out of the ditches;

Additional sorting at the dump;

Reusable stuff made accessible at the dump or through charities;

Recyclables might have to be stored until there is a market for them;

Packaging should be regulated and/or returned to the producer;

Fund the development of uses of recycled material.

•  Building Codes:

Encourage tiny homes, co-housing projects and other innovative living arrangements;

Allow and encourage owner builders, composting toilets;

Cut the regulations, houses are currently stupid-safe at great expense;

Maybe one could register a liability waiver for the property.

•  Tree Planting:

Start reforesting abandoned farms, poor pasture, burned areas, etc;

Individuals are often happy to plant trees on their own land if the stock is free.

 

6.  Quality of Life Issues:

•   Immigration:
  

We’re going to need all the help we can get;

Give abandoned farmland to immigrant farmers.

•   Biodiversity