Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the freshman US Representative that the far right loves to hate, and U.S. Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts recently had the audacity to propose a “Green New Deal” for America. In short order, potential Presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand lined up to support it. This has driven right wingers into a frenzied general attack on Democrats as being “overrun by socialists” and of – gasp – being pro-environment.

Let’s all take a breath here and get real about the proposal and its prospects for passage.

When the package was announced, its sponsor said: “This is going to be the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil-rights movement of our generation.”

Maybe, maybe not.

Older and wiser leaders in both parties were quick to note that something this ambitious would face hearings, studies, debates, and the entire gauntlet of legislative and public review. For the most part, Democrats were NOT climbing on board or being pushed into some kind of ideological corner. Instead, they did the right thing by acknowledging the boldness of the approach and referred it to appropriate Committees for review and actions on those pieces that make sense.

Bold thinking on the link between our environment and the economy is not new. In 1970, Senator Edmund Muskie, the lead author of the Clean Air Act, noted that man’s environment could not be separated from social policies. He said we cannot tolerate a society that allows “slums for some and decent houses for others, rats for some and playgrounds for others, clean air for some and filth for others.”

There is urgency to environmental action. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gives the planet less than 20 years before greenhouse gas emissions result in irreversible damage to the planet.

The Green New Deal takes on this challenge and goes further: It talks about transformation of our transportation systems, agriculture, energy production, housing, and labor management realities. While it is true that the package could actually help the economy by stimulating job growth, consumer spending and productivity, it is right to be careful about its wide-ranging scope.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) may have said it best. “I’m open to action but I’m also not going to destroy our economy.”

For example, knowing that coal, oil and gas provides at least 1.4 million American jobs and 80% of the current energy mix for the planet, the Green New Deal goal of “meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources" is probably just not possible in the near future. Similarly, “building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and 'smart' power grids, and working to ensure affordable access to electricity" and "upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency,” would be a massive infrastructure undertaking.

The Green New Deal goes on to seek changes in wages for workers, family leave policies, retirement security, and higher education subsidies. Also, for good measure, the program calls for “providing all people of the United States with high-quality health care; affordable, safe, and adequate housing; economic security; and access to clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food.”

Here’s the thing: Americans are famous for demanding action from their politicians and then attacking them for taking those actions. What the Green New Deal does is focus our attention on key environmental and social policy areas that are crying out for attention. While anything that looks like progress will draw immediate derision from conservative nay-sayers, we owe it to ourselves to give it some serious consideration.

Keep in mind that alternative energy technologies represent one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy. The US Department of Energy notes that 6.4 million Americans work in the energy sector; a large percentage of these new jobs are in renewable energy and efficiency. The wind and solar industries now boast over 300,000 workers, with an average increase of 25% per year. With more alternative fuel vehicles hitting the streets, more than 259,000 Americans work with these vehicles.

In the end, it is likely that the present Congress will move forward with the package in tiny pieces – if at all. The good news, however, is that we have begun a national conversation about issues that matter.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal is still considered the greatest of all stimulus and jobs bills. Like the original “New Deal,” the Green New Deal has the potential for being transformative to American society.

And, like the author of the original New Deal said so many years ago: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

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Mark S. Singel served as the 27th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995, alongside Gov. Bob Casey. He was acting governor from June 14 to Dec. 13, 1993, when Casey got sick. This column serves as the liberal counterpart to Charlie Gerow as part of the “Donkey & Elephants” series of contrasting opinions.