InsideSources

NY Senator and 2020 POTUS candidate Kirsten Gillibrand has joined the chorus of high-profile Democrats announcing their support for the “Green New Deal,” an aggressive (and expensive) proposal to de-carbonize America’s economy.

“The way I see a green economy is this: I think we need a moonshot. We need to tell the American people ‘we are going to have a green economy in the next 10 years, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard, because it’s a measure of our innovation and effectiveness,’ ” she said on the liberal “Pod Save America” podcast this week.  Her spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday that this is merely a reaffirmation on her previously-held position.

“Senator Gillibrand supports the Green New Deal concept and has been working for years on policies to aggressively combat climate change, protect our environment and create a green economy in communities that have often been left behind,” Gillibrand spokeswoman Whitney Brennan said.

But while Gillibrand, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke support the Green New Deal, some other big names are holding out:

The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Audubon Society.

When more than 600 green activist groups joined together to send out a letter demanding public officials support the Green New Deal, six of the largest and most respected environmental organizations declined. And according to the New Republic, “Two green groups founded by deep-pocketed Democratic celebrities are also absent: Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and Tom Steyer’s NextGen America.”

Why would establishment environmentalists like the Sierra Club and more radical actors like Tom Steyer decline to support a cause embraced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

“Speaking on background some said the letter did not allow for enough flexibility on the details of a Green New Deal,” the New Republic reports.  They objected to requiring signatories to oppose “market-based mechanisms and technology options such as carbon and emissions trading and offsets, carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, waste-to-energy and biomass energy.”

And then there’s the cost. While no definitive numbers exist, one estimate puts the cost of building the electrical generation capacity required alone at $2 trillion. And that doesn’t include the trillions in costs from mandating an end to all gas-powered vehicles, ending all oil exports and entirely shutting down America’s oil, gas and coal production.

In other words, the extremism of the Green New Deal is a step too far even for Al Gore. And, perhaps, Sen. Kamala Harris.

Despite calls from green activists like the Sunrise Movement–famous for organizing protests outside Speaker Pelosi’s office on the first day of the new Congress– the California senator has thus far declined to fully endorse the GND.

Harris’s spokesperson says the Senator is on board for the “goals of the Green New Deal,” but that doesn’t appear to be enough for the green movement in general.

“Having presidential candidates say they are supportive of the concept of doing something like the Green New Deal is amazing, but it’s not sufficient,” Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff to freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told the Washington Examiner.

Everybody knows that New York City firebrand — and future Congresswoman — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supports hot-button progressive causes like the #AbolishICE movement and impeaching President Trump. But how many people are aware that she’s in favor of restoring the Glass-Steagall Act? Or that she believes “we also should make sure that no bank is allowed to become ‘too-big-to-fail’ and that oversized banks are broken up to reduce the likelihood of a financial crash?”

While the media have focused on the political consequences of the Democratic Party’s battle between passionate progressives and the party establishment, people in the banking and finance sectors may want to keep an eye on something else: The impact of this progressive shift in the party on their bottom lines.

The progressives infiltrating the Democratic Party are not only doing so at a higher rates and greater chances of success, but they’re also pushing for tighter Wall Street regulation.

For the first two years of the Trump presidency, Democrats have made few high-profile efforts to stop President Donald Trump’s deregulation agenda, particularly in the financial sector. But earlier this year, 33 House Democrats and 17 Senate Democrats rolled over when Republicans rolled back key provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

But the new generation of progressive Democrats and the energized base that’s electing them is unlikely to sit quietly should they take power from the GOP in the midterms.

For one thing, anti-big-business sentiment is growing. According to an August Gallup poll, 47 percent of Democrats view capitalism positively—down from 56 percent in 2016— while 57 percent continue to view socialism positively, around the same percentage in 2010.

The Brookings Institution found that more radical, progressive Democrats are infiltrating the “establishment” Democratic Party, and more are winning primaries than ever before. They may not win enough to completely radicalize the party, but it’s enough to stop Democrats from cutting deals on financial reform with the GOP.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a democratic socialist urging her party to embrace a more aggressive regulatory agenda.  Cynthia Nixon, challenging Democratic incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the New York state gubernatorial race, self-describes as a democratic socialist, and highlights a planned crackdown on Wall Street on her platform, hoping to “hold Wall Street and big corporations accountable, and strengthen protections for workers and consumers.” Win or lose, she’s made it harder for Democrats in New York—America’s financial capital—to compromise with the industry.

Ayanna Pressley, who upset Massachusetts incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano in the 7th Congressional District primary,  sports a distinctly anti-big business flavor on her platform. She defeated Capuano despite the fact the he also  wanted a new Glass-Steagall Act, which he introduced last year to a Republican-controlled house.

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), the Democrat challenging Sen. Ted Cruz’s Texas seat, decried the rollback of Dodd-Frank in March while simultaneously approving of the relief the rollback provided to community banks.

Andrew Gillum, who beat establishment Democrat Gwen Graham in the bid for Democratic nomination for Florida governor and has been called a socialist (like Ocasio-Cortez), also promotes an anti-big business agenda on his platform, and wants to raise the corporate tax rate for the state of Florida should he become governor (as mayor of Tallahassee, he raised the corporate tax rate to 40 percent).

All five of these progressives have had surprising success in their party, in part because they represent the growing anti-big business and anti-big bank sentiment among Democratic voters.

In the past, Wall Street and the banking industry have used their bipartisan generosity to make friends on both sides of the aisle.  This new group of left-leaning or openly socialist democrats may mean the financial sector will have to find a new playbook if Democrats take power.  Or else face the consequences.

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