The proposed economic stimulus package dubbed the Green New Deal will be discussed at public forum at 6 p.m. Wednesday at The Lamplighter, Route 22, Delmont.
Local activist group Voice of Westmoreland is hosting the town hall forum for residents to learn how to make the Green New Deal — which addresses solutions to climate change — work through initiatives designed to boost the economy and create living wage jobs.
The original New Deal created in the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration was particularly important for workers in Westmoreland County, said Clair Dooley, founder of Voice of Westmoreland.
“A Green New Deal could provide good union jobs that improve the economy, raise wages, and save our environment,” Dooley said.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced non-binding Green New Deal resolutions in February that called for replacing fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil to produce electrical power with environmentally friendly energy sources like hydroelectric power, wind and solar.
The Republican majority in the Senate defeated the Green New Deal resolution in March. Ocasio-Cortez said the resolution will be followed by more specific proposals.
