Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) commented on the Green New Deal during her CNN town hall on Monday, saying "we need those goals."
Asked by Harvard student Madeleine Woods how she would include rural communities in the discussion on climate change, Klobuchar began her response by referencing comedian John Oliver.
"So it's Earth Day and for too long we have been debating whether climate change is happening. My favorite moment of this is when John Oliver finally decided to put a hundred scientists on his stage in white coats. 99 of them were on one side and one was on the other to show that the scientific community says it's happening," Klobuchar said.
"And I think what's important as you look at the goals in the Green New Deal, and no one thinks we're going to dot every 'i' and cross every 't' in a short period of time, but we need those goals. We need, as a nation, to come behind goals. We need the energy of young people and people that really want to move on climate change," Klobuchar continued.
During the roll out of the Green New Deal proposal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D., NY) office posted a supplementary document explaining the plan on her official website that called for "economic security to all who are unable or unwilling to work." It also acknowledged challenges to "fully get[ting] rid of farting cows and airplanes" in 10 years and said it would also seek to replace or upgrade every building in America with green energy alternatives. The document was later removed from the congresswoman's website.
The Washington Post criticized the Green New Deal in an editorial, arguing it did not meet the test of being "efficient, effective, focused and achievable."
The American Action Forum projected Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal proposal would cost up to $94 trillion over ten years, which amounts to over $600,000 per household.