Build the Clean Economy
America used to build things. A few years before Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt began building the Arsenal of Democracy that would go on to win World War II. He put all of America to work building the world's most powerful industrial economy. That not only defeated fascism, but built the wealth that created the modern day middle class and ended the Great Depression.
Today, the climate crisis is both the toughest challenge and the greatest economic opportunity humanity has ever seen. Instead of upgrading our economy to build war materiel and machines, we need to replace the old, dirty economy that's causing massive wildfires, droughts, and pollution with a new, clean economy that delivers prosperity to all.
As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's chief of staff, I helped author the Green New Deal, which directly led to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which created the largest investment in climate change in history. I also co-founded the think tank New Consensus, where I've spent the last six years creating the Mission for America (MFA) — a successor to the Green New Deal. The Mission for America is a detailed, comprehensive, and practical plan to rapidly slash emissions and create prosperity for all by building the most valuable goods and services that the whole world needs to build a clean economy. It includes more than 20 national plans to upgrade and expand every sector of our economy, laying out exactly what we need to do to build the high-tech, clean industries and infrastructure for each.