She should have listened to Whoopi.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, barely two months in office, is already a household name, and arguably the face of the Democratic Party. But that’s coming with a price. After her auspicious beginning as a first-term member of Congress—unlike any rookie has ever seen—she has been getting blowback.

The most recent example of this comes from Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore who just unloaded on her and her proposed Green New Deal. Moore, who has long since had nothing to do with that organization, last weekend said that the Deal would “bring about mass death” and that Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t “have a plan to grow food for 8 billion people without fossil fuels, or get food into the cities.” The Green New Deal itself would be “worse than WW2” and is “so completely crazy it is bound to be rejected in the end.”

AOC also just got accused of being a hypocrite for getting driven around in a large fossil fuel-guzzling SUV rather than using the New York City subway, with New York Post front-page photos of her on consecutive days.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is surely finding out that with prominence comes inevitable criticism, and not merely from garden-variety Republicans who disagree with her. Back in January, actress Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of The View, defended her fellow Democratic politicians against criticism from AOC. Ms. Goldberg then offered this sage advice to AOC: “I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn the job.”

To be fair, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is merely one member of Congress, with 534 others. She also was not the only person standing at the podium announcing the Green New Deal. Other, more veteran members were clapping along. Furthermore, most announced Democratic presidential contenders have gotten on board with this policy travesty (and who knows how many of them actually read it beforehand).

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is not even 30 years old and is barely a few years out of college. All she is doing is advancing what she’s been told since she slept in a crib, that is, the education, media, and entertainment culture for three decades has fully embraced the supposed threat of man-made “climate change.” Why shouldn’t she be pushy now that she’s a member of Congress with a national platform?

The criticism for this Green New Deal fiasco is better targeted at career politicians like Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the chief Senate sponsor of the Deal, and others who should know better. It’s not just AOC spreading Green fantasies that she’s been told all her life are real. It includes the bevy of more experienced politicians, several of whom deign to be president in 22 months.  They are trying to foist this (as Moore describes it) “completely crazy” set of proposals on the country that threaten its viability.

AOC responded to this latest criticism from Mr. Moore and the charges of hypocrisy by saying she’s living in the world as it is, and that the Green New Deal will bring lots of new jobs and technology to get the country to 100 percent renewable energy.

One can be for encouraging the development of cleaner energies without the incessant preening that goes with it from the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former California Gov. Jerry Brown and so many other politicians. With new technologies come new jobs that replace old ones, also known as “creative destruction.” Another word for that is capitalism.

Perhaps AOC has stumbled onto something. The private sector is the best means to bring about a renewable energy future, whenever that is. In the meantime, we are not running out of fossil fuels any time soon. Government edicts through the Green New Deal that mandate some percentage of energy come from renewable sources by a date certain in 2025 or 2030 won’t make it a reality, much less a practicality.

With more realism, less preening and eschewing vapid warnings about “existential threats” to the planet, AOC may avoid being attacked for hypocrisy since, as she said, all of us need to be “living in the world as it is.”

Being a media darling and outspoken indeed has its downsides. For Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she should heed Whoopi’s advice.