Actor and conservative commentator Ben Stein wrote a column Tuesday shredding the Green New Deal put forth by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey as an economic disaster for the country.

Mr. Stein, who holds a degree in economics, said the Green New Deal, which aims to transition the country completely off fossil fuels in 10 years, is “a multi-pronged way to snatch Depression from the Jaws of prosperity.”

“Patterned very loosely after FDR’s New Deal to fight the Great Depression, [Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s] plan would mandate complete and total control over the economy by the federal government,” Mr. Stein wrote in his column for The American Spectator magazine. “A New Gestapo would be created to watch America like a hawk. There could be no more gas- or oil-burning engines for anything.

“Every structure in the USA would have to be inspected and then knocked down and built anew, or ‘retrofitted’ so that it was totally powered by solar or wind or tidal action or some other form of totally non-polluting power,” he continued. “This would cost so much money that from the moment it was enacted, the USA would be bankrupt. The cost of this project would in a decade triple the national debt. This would make it completely unpayable EVER.

“Inflation would explode as federal money chased a limited pool of workers and resources. The country would be in a crisis that would make the Great Depression look like a picnic,” he added. “And meanwhile that immense cloud of air pollution raging out of China would not be reduced at all. In other words, we would have committed national economic suicide for nothing.”

Mr. Stein warned that while the Green New Deal, a nonbinding resolution, would likely gain little traction in Congress, dozens of members of Congress, including all 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, have signaled support for the measure.

“Would anyone have ever dreamed even five years ago that such madness was possible?” he asked. “God help us. The planting of ignorance is bearing poisoned fruit. This is terrifying stuff.”