Addressing the climate crisis is a top-tier issue for Democratic primary voters, shared only with universal health care coverage

After years on the periphery of American political life, climate change is having a bit of a moment. Activists (along with five Democratic presidential candidates and at least 100 members of Congress) have rallied behind a Green New Deal that proposes a crash program to decarbonize the US economy. Polls on climate change show rising rates of concern across the country and among both political parties. It seems that after decades near the bottom of Democratic priority list, climate has broken into the top two or three.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who will announce his presidential candidacy Friday morning, is hoping to seize that moment. Over the course of his 30-year career in public life — first in the Washington state legislature, then in the House of Representatives, then, since 2012, governor of Washington state — he has always prioritized sustainability, and not always to his political benefit. Now he sees his signature issue and the national zeitgeist aligning at last, and he thinks it can take him to the White House.

In 2007, Inslee released a book (co-written with Bracken Hendricks) called Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy. It called for a broad suite of emission-reducing policies, led by massive investments in American clean energy jobs, with a focus on environmental justice. If that sounds familiar, well, they didn’t call it a Green New Deal, but it was pretty green, and pretty New Deal.

Now, to his delight, a youth movement has thrust a similar plan into the center of national debate. He thinks he’s the guy to take it over the finish line.

 Karen Ducey/Getty Images

Inslee’s life will soon involve a whirlwind of state fairs and high school gymnasiums across Iowa and New Hampshire, but earlier this week, when we met at a coffee shop (ironically called Voxx) in Seattle, he was relaxed, sipping tea, with little in the way of entourage. He’s a longtime devotee of Washington’s natural places and an avid hiker, and it shows. As a north Seattleite, I was a constituent of Inslee’s in the early 2000s and have covered his career since he first ran for the House; he’s a grandfather now, but aside from a few more gray hairs, at 68 he is as hale as ever, with an athletic build and a blunt, earnest energy.

He told me that climate change is his “driving motivation” and why he believes it can unite the party. We discussed the kind of procedural reforms that might be necessary to actually get climate legislation passed — he calls the Senate filibuster an “antebellum rule in the internet age” and wants to get rid of it, has signed Washington up to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and supports statehood (and thus Senate votes) for Puerto Rico and Washington, DC.

And we discussed his record in (and plans for) our home state of Washington, including the vexing recent failures of two climate change ballot initiatives. (“If we had an initiative on the ballot that said, ‘Washington state should move on climate change,’ that would’ve passed.”)

At the end of our interview, as he rose to leave, a woman named Janine approached Inslee and introduced herself. “I’m very proud to have you,” she said. “We need someone out here for climate change.”

Inslee glanced at me and smiled. “Janine’s not on our payroll.”

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

A presidential bid centered on climate change

David Roberts

Why do you want to be president?

Jay Inslee

Ultimately, I believe there is one central, defining, existential-with-a-capital-E threat to the future of the nation: climate change. It is clear that it will only be defeated if the United States shows leadership. And that will only happen if the US president makes it a clear priority — the number one, foremost, paramount goal of the next administration.

That is the only way we will be victorious in this fight. And I believe I’m uniquely positioned, by willingness and history and vision, to be able to do that. So I do feel compelled to do it. On my last day, I want to be able to say I did everything I could on [climate change].

 Ed Hawkins

David Roberts

So you’re building your campaign on climate change?

Jay Inslee

That is my driving motivation. I have many things that I care about in life — from criminal justice reform to pay equity, minimum wage, ending the death penalty, passing net neutrality, reproductive parity — and I’ve done all of those things in my state. I’d like to do them in our country.

But we have to have a priority on [climate change]. I’ve been at this for two decades. I understand the challenges inherent in getting this job done. It is a big, heavy lift. There’s many things that will help — improving voting rights, ending the filibuster, many structural things that will help — but you still have to have that presidential leadership. It will only happen if we have a leader who will prioritize it, who will develop a mandate during a campaign to do it (having that mandate is very important), and use the political capital necessary to get it done.

David Roberts

Do you believe Obama did not personally put enough political capital behind the 2008 climate bill?

Jay Inslee

This is not to be critical, it’s just an observation: The Democratic team said, “We’re going to do health care first.” And so climate didn’t get done. Now, could it have gotten done if it was put first? There are no guarantees in the historical retrospectoscope. But once health care went first, there wasn’t enough juice to get climate through.

We simply cannot have that experience again. So [climate change] can’t be on a laundry list. It can’t be something that candidates check the box on. It has to be a full-blooded effort to mobilize the United States in all capacities. I feel uniquely committed to that, among all of the potential candidates, and I understand what’s necessary to do it.

David Roberts

It does seem that climate politics are shifting on the Democratic side. Do you think the party’s moving in the right direction on this?

Jay Inslee

Yes, absolutely. And the politics have changed dramatically in the general citizenry. This used to be a chart, or a graph. When I wrote my book, 11 years ago, it was a numbers discussion.

Now it’s a Paradise, California, burning down. Kids can’t go swimming because of air quality. Houston is drowned; Miami Beach has to raise their roads. This is now a retinal issue. People see it — they don’t have to intellectually project the future.

 Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Center for American Progress [Action Fund] did a poll in the first four primary states among likely Democratic voters, and for the first time, they ranked climate change as the number one priority, in a dead tie with health care. This is a pretty significant dynamic. And obviously, it bodes well for my candidacy!

David Roberts

The conventional wisdom in US politics is that you can get relatively high numbers of people to say they care about climate change, but they rarely prioritize it. How can you take an issue that’s way down on the list and ride it all the way to the White House?

Jay Inslee

The answer is the poll I just mentioned. It’s top of the list. This is objective evidence of what I’ve felt anecdotally. When traveling around New Hampshire and Iowa, the intensity of this issue is five, 10 time higher than it was when I wrote my book. It’s a whole new world.

I was asked to talk at Dartmouth and I met with a group of students. The leader said, “I’ve had two conversations the last couple days with friends, two women, who said they wondered whether it was the right thing to do to bring a child into the world, a potentially degraded experience.” This is now reaching into people’s personal lives, deeply.

Climate politics, in Washington and the other Washington

David Roberts

Washington state has had a great deal of frustration and difficulty in getting good climate policy passed. You’ve backed several legislative packages that ultimately failed to pass; a couple of ballot initiatives failed to pass. What’s the record you’re running on?

Jay Inslee

It’s both a record and a vision. Johnson hadn’t passed civil rights legislation for 20 years in the Senate, either, but he signed the civil rights bill.

And yes, we’ve had frustrations, but we have had progress here. I was very involved in passing the renewable portfolio standard [in 2006]. We went from zero to a billion-dollar wind industry in the last several years. We have moved the needle on the electrification of our transportation system. We’re number one or two, or we used to be, with electric cars [one recent study ranks Washington the third-friendliest state for EVs, behind California and, oddly, Georgia], because of the work we’ve been doing with incentives and building the electrical charging station grid on the interstate.

We have created a clean energy research facility that’s doing great work. We built a clean energy development program. So I would say we have had substantial progress here, and I have been involved in virtually all of that in some way.

It’s not like we haven’t been busy. Yes, it has been frustrating. The oil and gas companies spent $32 million [to defeat a GND-like ballot initiative]. But the most important renewable energy source is perseverance. I’m serious. That is the secret to success here.

And we are persevering. So this year, we are advancing a package of bills in the legislature, including a 100 percent clean grid bill.

 Shutterstock

I hadn’t looked at my book for quite a while, but I looked at the Ten Rules of Climate Change in the back. One is, there’s no silver bullet; there’s silver buckshot. There’s multiple tools. If one doesn’t work, you’ve got to go to the next.

So I feel good about our ability to move forward. I think our experience has shown that progress is possible, that more is necessary, and that I’ve identified the things that will work. By the way, give me a legislature and we would have been done 12 years ago. [It was only in 2017 that Democrats won reliable control of the state Senate for the first time in Inslee’s governorship.]

Now [Democrats] have got 10 new legislators here [in Washington state]. We’ve got seven new governors — we’re now up to 21 states in the US Climate Alliance.

David Roberts

It’s an interesting time — is that the word? — in national politics. What’s your take on national climate politics right now?

Jay Inslee

The fact that people are raising the bar of ambition, that’s good. We should not be surprised if there’s some tension about whether we go 75 mph or 55 mph, but we’re heading in the same direction. There’s going to be justifiable debate about how fast that is and where the investment is and how to fashion it. I’m really optimistic about this.

David Roberts

The Green New Deal takes the approach of tying climate policy together with economic renewal, jobs, and justice. In many ways, it is the opposite of the narrow carbon pricing approach, trying to microtarget carbon in a way that can generate bipartisan cooperation. Do you believe all those policies belong together?

Jay Inslee

We should do what I said we should do in my book: a major industrial transformation to decarbonize the US economy that will result in millions of new jobs and greater prosperity. Unfortunately, no movies were made of my book [laughs], and it didn’t capture people’s imagination in 2007.

So no, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this approach. I think it’s necessary and suitable to the times. It’s a major reindustrialization of America and we should talk about it in these terms. We need to build things again, all around the country. We’ve got to get communities involved in that. I think the youth movement on this is fantastic.

 Sunrise Movement

David Roberts

Reindustrialization and decarbonization seem to be what most people agree on. It’s whether to do social policy alongside that is causing the tension.

Jay Inslee

Look, I want to protect a woman’s right [to] reproductive freedom. Does that have to be part of this? Not necessarily. We are going to accomplish that, though.

Kennedy said, “We’re going to the moon in 10 years and bring a man back safely.” It would have been unproductive to say, “No, I think it’s 12 years.”

David Roberts

Should PAYGO rules apply to the moonshot? [laughs]

Jay Inslee

There are so many questions that should not stop us from the launch, okay? That’s what we should be focused on right now, the launch.

I am undeterred by all of these other questions. I don’t think they’re injurious to the effort at all. I think it’s been hugely successful in getting this thing on the agenda.

David Roberts

Have you endorsed the Green New Deal?

Jay Inslee

Well, I don’t get to vote on it, but I am totally in sync and believe that it is exactly what I have said for decades. I think these aspirational goals are appropriate to the time and the scale. I love the fact that it is embracing economic justice issues as well. I think we have come to understand more about how marginalized communities have been the victims of climate change.

The filibuster, voting reform, and creating new states, oh my

David Roberts

There are all sorts of procedural difficulties for progressives in the US, but one that’s come in for a lot of scrutiny lately is the Senate filibuster. It looks to many people like, whatever momentum you gather on the front end, at the end of the line is a needle through which no camel can pass. How serious are you are about trying to get rid of the filibuster?

Jay Inslee

I believe the filibuster is an artifact of history that no longer fits American democracy. It is such an impediment to our ability to respond to multiple challenges. We know how it would prevent climate change legislation of any dimension from moving through the Senate. In the short term, it’s very difficult to see how we move forward without elimination of the filibuster.

 Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty

By the way, it has been eliminated, any time Mitch McConnell wants to eliminate it! It’s a vestigial organ that has been transformed from a rarely used protection of regional economies to a weaponized system for the right wing by Mitch McConnell. This is not your grandfather’s filibuster; it’s a nuclear weapon. It has to go if we’re to make progress on climate change, that’s absolutely clear.

But that’s not the only reason it needs to go. I have believed for some time that democracy means one person, one vote. No senator should be looked at as superior and no senator should be looked at as inferior. The filibuster gives one senator one and a half votes.

David Roberts

Joe Lieberman, I think, is the shorthand term for that person.

Jay Inslee

What kind of sense does it make that the senator who wants the status quo gets one and a half votes and the senator who wants change gets one? That does not make sense to me. I said years ago that it should go, and I still believe it.

David Roberts

What about fears among Democrats about what Republicans would do absent the filibuster?

Jay Inslee

Obviously, the rules have to be for everyone. This means Americans are going to get what Americans vote for.

David Roberts

They’re not used to that.

Jay Inslee

If America votes for Democrats, they should get Democratic policies, aligned with some independents. If they vote for Republicans, they’re going to get Republican policies. That’s called democracy. Yes, there are risks in democracy. Certainly the election of Donald Trump has demonstrated the risks of democracy.

David Roberts

Not a majority democracy.

Jay Inslee

We’ll come to the Electoral College next.

But the filibuster means being chained to the past, because it’s a protection of the status quo. We cannot be chained to the past by a nondemocratic institution. The world is changing too fast. Bottom line, you can’t have antebellum rules in the Senate in the internet age.

And I have the same view of the Electoral College. It ought to be one person, one vote.

David Roberts

What’s the right reform there?

Jay Inslee

The fastest way is for other states to join Washington in a contract that we will vote our electoral ballots the way the popular vote goes, nationally. As soon as you get to a majority of states, you don’t need a constitutional amendment.

David Roberts

That would have changed a few key election outcomes in past decades.

Jay Inslee

It would have prevented the chaos we now are experiencing.

By the way, I read an article by Ralph Nader the other day saying that it’s a huge mistake for Howard Schultz to run because he’ll be a spoiler, but don’t be mean to him and tell him not to do it. [laughs] That was the article. Of course, he won’t get a single electoral vote, but he may get us Donald Trump again, which would be a disaster. But don’t be mean to him when he’s thinking about it.

David Roberts

I think Schultz, like Nader, may have misread the moment.

Jay Inslee

The mirror is a pretty powerful instrument.

 Joshua Lott/Getty Images

David Roberts

Lots of progressives are also talking about statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, to give them federal representation and votes in the Senate.

Jay Inslee

I’ve always supported statehood for Puerto Rico and DC. People have got to have representation — 700,000 people in the District of Columbia is as large as Wyoming.

David Roberts

That’s not saying much.

Jay Inslee

By the way, we were in a meeting with the EPA two days ago and the governor of Wyoming interrupted me to explain that wind turbines cause climate change. And Washington state is the reason we have climate change, because we have not burned enough coal. I’m not making this up.

Figuring out what Washington voters will support

David Roberts

Are you still thinking about some sort of carbon pricing system, or hooking up with California’s system?

Jay Inslee

This year, I haven’t proposed a carbon pricing system. I thought it was too soon after the initiative. We need some victories. So I decided to go the other route. But what I have proposed has roughly the same level of carbon reductions as the initiative would have had.

I would not rule out some sort of carbon pricing system, federally or statewide, in the future, but this is what I’ve proposed to move forward right now.

David Roberts

We’re constantly being told that the public’s changing their mind on climate change. But in Washington, two initiatives put straight to voters [I-732 and I-1631], very different varieties of carbon policy systems, were both rejected.

Jay Inslee

First off, if we had an initiative on the ballot that said, “Washington state should move on climate change,” that would’ve passed. We could’ve had a hundred different initiatives I believe would have passed, involving regulatory approaches, many of which are the things I’ve proposed in the legislature this year. The one that did get on the ballot was the hardest to pass, the pricing system.

 Hannah Letinich, Yes On 1631

But that is only one of the many tools at our disposal, from 100 percent clean grid to clean fuel standards, direct incentive programs, hydrophobic elimination, and building infrastructure for clean public transportation. Don’t let one message on one plan stop an effort to build a new, clean economy.

David Roberts

One final Washington state question: I wanted to ask how you see the role of density and public transit in the climate fight. Specifically, there’s a bill brewing now among House Democrats in Washington state that’s going to cut billions of dollars of funding from Sound Transit 3 funding. Would you veto that bill?

Jay Inslee

On the legislation, I can’t make any blanket statements because I don’t know what they’re proposing. Clearly we need to continue investment in Sound Transit. Public transportation is absolutely central to defeating climate change. We have to reorient our thinking, just because of geography.

We’re not making any more dirt. There’s just no more land to use.

David Roberts

And people keep coming.

Jay Inslee

And people keep coming. So we have to increase the carrying capacity per mile of every mile of corridor. That’s just a simple physics fact. That means you have to have more options for public transportation. I’m highly protective of that.

I also think we’re going to have to recognize the need for more density. This creates controversy, but again, it’s a physical principle. We’re either going to have more density or we’re going to have single-family dwellings at the top of Mount Rainier.

This is an issue we’re going to have to grapple with. There is a bill in the legislature to promote more density. I hope it advances.

Bipartisanship, but also, partisanship

David Roberts

This is an unanswerable question, so it’ll be a good one to finish on.

Obviously, everything Democrats are dealing with right now, in terms of strategy and tactics, has to do with getting something done in the face of total intransigence from the other party. You’ve seen the same divide in our state, between eastern and western Washington.

It seems like it’s only growing, that we have two alien peoples occupying the same country. And it doesn’t seem like a country like that can remain stable over the long term. Do you see any prospect of changing it?

Jay Inslee

Actually, on climate change, the public is not as divided. Big majorities of the public want action on climate change. But the Republican elected leadership is under the thrall of Donald Trump, even though they’ll privately tell you that this is a problem. They won’t publicly say it yet.

We have to encourage those Republican leaders to step out of the shadow of Donald Trump and come to the table to find some solutions. And we’re open to that.

Now, we have had some bipartisan success [in Washington government] — a bipartisan education bill, a bipartisan transportation bill that had the biggest percentage for public transportation in the state’s history. You can get things done. But at the moment, we’ve got to defeat Republicans.

And we have been successful at that in my state. We picked up Senate seats. I’m chair of the Democratic Governors Association — Democrats flipped several governorships. Now we have 21 states in our Climate Alliance. So don’t give up hope.