Warren Unveils Environmental “Blue New Deal”

Axios reports:

Elizabeth Warren is out with new plans to speed up offshore wind projects, expand marine sanctuaries, and bolster use of oceans to soak up carbon emissions.

Driving the news: Those are three pillars of the far wider “Blue New Deal” — a riff on the “Green New Deal” concept — on ocean policy that the Democratic White House hopeful unveiled Tuesday.

Why it matters: Politically, the plan’s arrival follows Warren’s recent slide in the polls after challenging Joe Biden for frontrunner status in the fall.

An excerpt from her Medium post:

As we rapidly transition our economy to 100% clean energy, we must prioritize offshore wind and wave energy. Offshore wind is more consistent than onshore wind and could provide four times the present capacity of our grid. By 2030, offshore wind energy development from Maryland to Maine could support more than 36,000 full time jobs.

But the Trump administration and government red tape have bogged down existing projects, making development cumbersome and untenable. Despite a decade of effort, the Block Island Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island remains the only offshore wind project operating in the United States.

This will change in a Warren administration. As president, I will work to streamline and fast-track permitting for offshore renewable energy, including making sure projects are sited with care based on environmental impact assessments.

And I will make sure that the communities hosting this new development receive a share of the benefits. Community Benefit Agreements can help address power imbalances between project developers and low-income communities by setting labor, environmental, and transparency standards before work begins.