Commentary: What Inslee brings to the campaign stump
In what could be a crowded field of Democratic contenders for the office of president, Jay Inslee is seeking to set himself apart. So rather than focusing on bread-and-butter issues like raising the federal minimum wage and Medicare-for-all, the former congressman and two-term governor of Washington state is staking his presidential aspirations on a single issue: tackling global climate change.
“We’re laying the groundwork that would make this a feasible thing in the relatively short term,” Inslee said in a recent interview published in The Atlantic. He thinks the time is right: “When you’ve been working on something for over a decade, and now seeing people awakening to that, it’s just really gratifying and heartening,”
Inslee’s bona fides on the issue are well-established. In 2011, New York Times editor John M. Broder described then-Rep. Inslee as “one of Congress’s most ardent advocates of strong action to combat global warming.”
As an early supporter of alternative energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he called for an Apollo-like energy program to invest in ameliorating the effects of global climate change. He used his position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to seek cap-and-trade legislation and the Cash-for-Clunkers program. He advocated for America’s alternative energy sector by working to expand the use of wind and solar energy. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, he voted for legislation that would reform the oil and gas industry and how they are regulated.
As Washington’s governor, Inslee continues to champion the environmental cause. Immediately after securing the governorship in 2013, he worked with members of both parties to meet the state’s greenhouse gas emissions targets. Inslee’s budgets included investments in clean energy projects and created University of Washington’s Clean Energy Institute. He issued executive orders to diversify the state’s energy portfolio and transition from coal-fired electricity to cleaner energy sources.
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