Current:Home > StocksStarting his final year in office, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee stresses he isn’t finished yet -WealthTrack
Starting his final year in office, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee stresses he isn’t finished yet
View
Date:2025-04-20 15:03:00
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Addressing the Legislature at the start of his final year in office, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee returned to one of his top priorities and the issue that defined his brief presidential bid: climate change.
“We know that climate change is hurting us now, today. But climate collapse does not have to be our inevitable future,” he said in his 11th State of the State address. “This Legislature put us on a clear — and necessary — path to slash greenhouse gases by 95% by 2050.”
Inslee touted the state’s 1-year-old Climate Commitment Act, a landmark policy that works to cap and reduce pollution while creating revenue for climate investments. It raised $1.8 billion in 2023 through quarterly auctions in which emission allowances are sold to businesses covered under the act. He said the money is going to electric school buses, free transit rides for young people and public electric vehicle chargers.
But that major part of his climate legacy is in question. A conservative-backed initiative that is expected to end up on the November ballot aims to reverse the policy.
In a seeming nod to that challenge and the path ahead for his climate policy, he said: “Any delay would be a betrayal of our children’s future. We are now on the razor’s edge between promise and peril.”
Inslee, who is the longest-serving governor in office in the U.S., stressed he wasn’t making a goodbye speech. There is plenty more he wants to see accomplished in the 60-day session, which started Monday.
He urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would increase transparency surrounding oil prices in the face of what he described as “the roller coaster of gas prices.” He also discussed helping families add energy-efficient heat pumps designed to reduce emissions and slash energy bills.
Outside of climate change, the governor asked lawmakers for about $64 million more to treat and prevent opioid use. He also pushed for more funding for drug trafficking investigations and referenced the need for more police officers.
Inslee also brought up homelessness. The state has the fourth most unsheltered people in the U.S., according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Some think we can just wave a wand and those living in homelessness will simply disappear,” he said. “But this is the real world, and we have an honest solution: Build more housing, connect people to the right services, and they’ll have a chance to succeed.”
Inslee neared the end of his remarks by describing what he sees as two grave threats in the state and the nation — threats to democracy and to abortion rights.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, he urged lawmakers to join states like Ohio, which approved a constitutional amendment that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care.
“Fundamentally, this is an issue of freedom — freedom of choice when facing one of the most intimate and personal decisions in life,” he said.
Despite these challenges, overall he stressed that the “state of our state is stronger than ever.”
Republican leadership had a much more negative view of the progress the state has made.
“By any metric you want to pick, there is a growing catalog of crises facing the state,” House Republican Leader Rep. Drew Stokesbary told reporters following the speech. “The vast majority of which have gotten significantly worse during the last 12 years, when Jay Inslee was governor.”
Democrats have a majority in both the House and Senate.
Sen. John Braun, Republican leader, tore into the very notion of the Climate Commitment Act, calling it “essentially a large gas tax.”
“Here we are in the state of Washington. We might be thinking we’re innovative, we have fabulous companies that are innovative. And yet our solution is not innovative at all,” he said.
Inslee was first elected in 2012. He announced in May that he would not seek a fourth term.
veryGood! (36)
Related
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- Deadly stabbing of gay man at NYC gas station investigated as potential hate crime
- Former GOP Senate leader in Connecticut who resigned amid a legislative probe dies at 89
- Improve Your Skin’s Texture With a $49 Deal on $151 Worth of Peter Thomas Roth Anti-Aging Products
- Small twin
- Horoscopes Today, July 31, 2023
- Angus Cloud, of Euphoria fame, dead at 25
- MLB power rankings: Padres and Cubs getting hot probably ruined the trade deadline
- House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
- Impact of Hollywood strikes being felt across the pond
Ranking
- The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
- Missouri man facing scheduled execution for beating death of 6-year-old girl in 2002
- Rock a New Look with These New Balance Deals: Up to 65% Off at the Nordstrom Rack Flash Sale
- Upgrade your tablet tech by pre-ordering the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 for up to $820 off
- Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
- Summer of Smoke: Inside Canada's hub of operations as nation battles 5,000 wildfires
- 5 people died in a fiery wrong-way crash in middle Georgia
- Helicopter crashes into cornfield in southern Illinois, killing pilot
Recommendation
California DMV apologizes for license plate that some say mocks Oct. 7 attack on Israel
'Fairly shocking': Secret medical lab in California stored bioengineered mice laden with COVID
Body discovered inside a barrel in Malibu, homicide detectives investigating
Deadly stabbing of gay man at NYC gas station investigated as potential hate crime
What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
Chasing arrows plastic recycling symbol may get tossed in the trash
Woman born via sperm donor discovers she has 65 siblings: ‘You can definitely see the resemblance'
Fate of American nurse and daughter kidnapped by armed men in Haiti remains uncertain