A letter from Washington State Governor Jay Inslee:
Friends and Climate Allies,
I’m excited to tell you that today in Washington State we launched one of America’s most ambitious plans to confront climate change and build a clean energy future. We will achieve 100% clean energy and slash carbon pollution across sectors while investing in good-paying jobs in an innovative and inclusive clean energy economy. Our bold, comprehensive plan builds upon the Evergreen State’s climate leadership. It includes:
- 100% clean energy commitment: Requires that power utilities achieve 100% clean energy. They must be carbon-neutral by 2030 and must use only clean power by 2045.
- Decarbonizing transportation: New standards requiring zero-emission vehicles and clean fuels, along with incentives and investments to further accelerate electrification of this key sector.
- Buildings: Incentives to promote energy efficiency retrofits for old buildings, investments in net-zero carbon homes and schools, and new standards for ultra-energy efficient construction and to cut natural gas usage.
- Eliminating climate super-pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs): Our new program to slash these powerful greenhouse gases found in aerosols, refrigeration, heating and air conditioning systems will also enhance the global competitiveness American manufacturers who have reduced HFCs.
- We will also continue to invest in job-creating clean energy innovation and infrastructure, through programs like our Washington State Clean Energy Fund and Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Bank, and we’ll invest in building healthier and more climate-resilient communities.
Across the country there is exciting momentum building for climate action. From new governors taking office who support the Paris Climate Agreement and 100% clean energy, to the hundreds of activists who were in Washington, DC today calling on more Congressional Democrats to join the burgeoning coalition for an ambitious, all-out national plan to confront climate change and build a more sustainable and more just clean energy future.
We should not be so naïve as to think the dam is broken, or that the significant forces of darkness are not amassed to continue to block and delay progress. We will defeat those forces of climate denial and fossil fuel profits and make the 2020 election a referendum on confronting the climate crisis. But first we must sustain this awesome momentum, by organizing our allies and by achieving policy wins in states that are our best opportunity for meaningful climate progress in the short-term – progress that Donald Trump cannot stop.
Thanks for your support for our efforts in Washington State and your hard work in this cause. Let’s go do this.
Very Truly Yours,
Jay Inslee
Learn more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/420611-washington-governor-plans-major-climate-initiatives
