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Inslee Promises To Make The Climate Change Fight His No. 1 Priority

John Pemble/IPR
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee describes his plan to fight climate change as "the gold standard," and says if climate change isn't defeated, "everything else we work for is moot."

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says if climate change can’t be defeated, everything else is moot.  Inslee spoke Saturday at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair, and promised to work to do just that.

“I will make defeating the climate crisis the Number One priority in the United States.  That is what we have to do to get this job done,” he said.

Inslee says his clean energy jobs program will create work for eight million union workers across the country, working at clean energy plants, building wind turbines and clean-energy cars, and manufacturing biofuels.

He says clean energy is the greatest job-creating opportunity for the Unites State since the construction of Interstate system. 

Inslee also called for more action to combat gun violence in the United States, including a national ban on assault-style weapons.  Inslee said he voted for the 1994 bill that banned assault-style weapons for ten years when he was a freshman lawmaker in Washington, DC.

“I voted to ban assault weapons, I lost my seat in Congress, and I’ve never regretted that vote for a heartbeat,” he said.

Inslee also made a brief appeal for Iowa voters to support J.D. Scholten in his bid to unseat 4th District Rep. Steve King.  Scholten announced this past week that he would make a second run for the seat.  He lost last year’s election by 3 percentage points.

Michael Leland is IPR's News Director