Senate vote puts Green New Deal resolution to bed

Enlarge / Activists outside the Congress demanding a vote to pass the Green New Deal. (credit: Aurora Samperio/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

On Tuesday afternoon, US Senators voted 0-57 on whether to take a vote on the Green New Deal, according to The Hill. Fifty-three Republicans, three Democrats, and an Independent from Maine voted not to advance the resolution, and 43 Democrats voted "present," essentially taking no official side in the vote.

The Green New Deal is a sweeping but non-binding resolution, unofficially committing the United States to radically update its energy grid with renewable energy in a span of 10 years. The plan would be accomplished through major infrastructure projects akin to those seen during the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's time.

The plan, sponsored by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the House, has been extraordinarily controversial. It's been panned as "socialism" on the right and tacitly disavowed by more moderate Democrats in Republican-leaning states.

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