Too Much Hot Air? Gov. Inslee Admits Greenhouse Gas Emissions Increased Under His Tenure
During his interview on All In with Chris Hayes, presidential candidate and Washington state Governor Jay Inslee admitted greenhouse gas emissions have increased during his tenure. He blamed the increase on people moving to the state via their cars.
“If I’m not mistaken, emissions have gone up during your tenure as governor, correct?” Hayes asked.
“Yes, we’ve had about 130,000 people moving here. So we’ve got more cars and we have taken big steps. We’ve now built a wind turbine industry to $6 billion. We’re the most, per capita, the biggest users of electric cars. We’re spinning carbon fiber to go into electric cars. I just got the cut the ribbon on our largest solar farm. We’re making biofuels that you can fly airplanes…but we need to do more,” Inslee said.
“But doing a lot is not enough. This is the whole problem. I’ve been hearing doing a lot for a long time,” Hayes interjected. “They’ve got to go down. You’re governor off a state that’s a pretty progressive state, although you had a Republican legislature. What do you say to someone who says look you’ve had the chance to bring emissions down in your state, you haven’t done it. How the heck are you going to do it with a Republican Senate maybe, or in the more difficult to manage federal government?”
Inslee said one of the best ways to move anti-climate change bills through the legislature is to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate.
“First off the voters have given me now a Democratic legislature so for the first time I have a working majority. Right now as we speak we have several bills including 100% clean grid, a clean fuel standard I hope will pass tonight in my House. A super- pollutant bill. New building codes for net zero buildings. So we are going to move the needle…but the other thing we have to do, we have to get rid of the filibuster,” he said. “The filibuster will stop us in our tracks. It’s an vestige of an antebellum era. It is an antiquated thing that will stop us from saving the planet.”
Inslee has made the issue of climate change a central part of his presidential campaign:
Climate change is a matter of national security. Wars for oil that have cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars must end once and for all. #OurClimateMoment
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) March 11, 2019
Proud to speak with Nevada activists getting ready to pass 50% renewable standard for the state. These are the leaders who will defeat climate change #OurClimateMoment pic.twitter.com/UlNlAlK89f
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) March 9, 2019
Watch above, via MSNBC.
