PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Green New Deal is not the eco-socialist approach the Green Party has had in mind in gubernatorial and presidential campaigns since 2010. The Greens' version is an economic justice program like the original New Deal. It aims to revitalize the public sector in order to secure universal economic rights to a living-wage job, an adequate income, decent housing, comprehensive health care, and a good education. It includes public job and income guarantees, expanded public housing, improved Medicare for all, and free public education from pre-K through college. It's a Green New Deal because it would also build a zero-carbon, 100 percent clean energy economy by 2030 to provide the economic stimulus and sustainable foundation for economic rights for all.

Cuomo's Green New Deal is limited to energy policy. Its headline goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2040 covers only 20 percent of New York's carbon emissions. To eliminate the other 80 percent of emissions in the transportation, buildings, industrial, and agricultural sectors, Cuomo defers indefinitely to a study by the Climate Action Council he has had since he took office in 2011. Cuomo's 2040 goal cannot even happen because he supports new fracked-gas power plants that will emit greenhouse gases well beyond 2040.