AOC blames aide for ‘farting cows’ Green New Deal document – Washington Examiner

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blamed an unnamed aide for the document that was sent out to the media and posted on her congressional website during the disastrous February rollout of her Green New Deal climate plan.

The freshman congresswoman told MSNBC Friday she didn’t accept any responsibility for the widely-ridiculed six-page document.

“I definitely had a staffer that had a really bad day at work,” she said.

The nonbinding resolution outlining a Green New Deal — a wide-ranging proposal to combat climate change — was released by Democrats in the House and the Senate in a coordinated campaign in February. All 2020 Democrats in the U.S. Senate signed on.

But the rollout hit an immediate snag: a confusing six-page Green New Deal FAQ document that had also been sent to the media by Ocasio-Cortez’s office and posted on her website.

Among other things, it proposed providing “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work” and called for “a full transition off fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases.”

“We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast,” the Green New Deal FAQ document read.

The plan called for the eventual elimination of fossil fuels, the retrofitting of every building in America, and the phasing out of personal transport like cars.

Democrats immediately distanced themselves from the FAQ, with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., the leading co-sponsor of the resolution in the Senate, saying: “I’m familiar with the fact sheet. But again, it’s separate from the resolution, all right? The resolution is really what the document is that I was speaking to today … That’s the key document. That’s what you should focus on. Focus on the resolution.”

When asked by Hayes Friday about the negative fallout, Ocasio-Cortez said the working draft was meant to spark a serious conversation about technology.

“We did release a working draft early, so I get that that is what they’re seizing on. But really, what we need to do is have a serious conversation. And even in those draft versions, what they were talking about is really about the fact that we need to innovate on our technology,” she said, acknowledging that the staffer released a document that mentioned cow flatulence.

“Which is an issue,” she said, echoing Hayes.

Criticism of the Green New Deal went beyond just the flawed FAQ document — one estimate from a center-right think tank said the proposal could cost anywhere between $51 trillion and $93 trillion over the first decade.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, brought the Green New Deal resolution up for a vote earlier this month.

The resolution failed, with 57 voting against and 43 voting “present.”