Gov. Jay Inslee Outlines Ambitious Climate Change Plan At Council On Foreign Relations

Gov. Jay Inslee, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday morning to outline his bold climate change proposal that includes an $8 trillion investment in green energy, which he expects would yield nine million jobs in the U.S. “Wind turbines do not cause cancer, they cause jobs,” Inslee joked in reference to President Donald Trump‘s questioning of windmill’s health effects.

Inslee sounded the alarm that a national crisis is shaping up over climate change. “We have blinded ourselves to how dire the situation is, we are going to roar past two degrees,” he said, a reference to the maximum temperature increase believed by scientists that would be required in order to avoid a climate disaster.

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Inslee noted that he had worked with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former California Gov. Jerry Brown on forming the United States Climate Alliance, which commits their states to uphold the Paris Climate Accord standards. “We wanted to show there’s still intelligent life in the United States,” Inslee joked.