Seattle Launches Its Vision for an Urban Green New Deal

The next step is turning the City Council’s resolution into pro-climate policies and finding ways to pay for them.  Seattle has a few big ideas.

City leaders launched Seattle on the path to a Green New Deal this week, passing a resolution that starts laying out an ambitious plan for how the city can cut its greenhouse gas emissions in ways that protect the climate and improve the lives of its residents.

It's a nonbinding resolution, and like the national Green New Deal manifesto that's being promoted by Democrats in Congress, presidential hopefuls and the young activists in the Sunrise Movement, it's still mostly aspirational.

But it begins to sketch out a roadmap for Seattle's future as the city tries to both adapt to climate change and cut emissions in line with what the world's scientists say is needed.

The resolution envisions free public transit, a limit on new fossil fuel construction, 100 percent electric vehicles for ride sharing, and an infrastructure plan that takes sea level rise into account, among other ideas.

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