Jay Inslee pens NY Times climate change op-ed in latest campaign push

Ahead of this week’s Democratic debates, Jay Inslee has made another push to get his message about climate change out to voters.

This time, however, Inslee is not just targeting those concerned about the environmental issue, he is sending a message to voters eager to oust President Donald Trump. He argues that the climate change issue has the potential to take down the current president.

“We will defeat Donald Trump by attacking his failures on climate change, not by running from the issue,” Inslee writes in a Sunday column in The New York Times.

Inslee gives New York Times a few Inslee-isms

Inslee lays out his argument for why he has made climate change the focus of his presidential campaign. Instead of slogans, Inslee’s column makes a few points to back up his argument:

• Climate changes cost the U.S. economy at least $240 billion annually over the past decade; that figure is expected to rise to $360 billion over the next 10 years.
• He points to people who have been affected by wildfires and health complications from living near refineries as sympathetic examples.
• America has an opportunity to lead the world again, this time in a new economy based on clean, renewable energy.
• President Donald Trump has done no work on these issues. Inslee says that’s because this is a weak spot for him.
• Inslee has a plan to move the U.S. to 100 percent clean energy, ensure a just transition for fossil fuel workers, and create eight million jobs.

Inlsee further argues that President Trump is a lair and that he is scared. Inslee writes:

He knows that climate change is his weak spot. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, only 29 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Trump’s position on climate change, while 62 percent disapprove — a wider gulf than on any other issue polled. And Mr. Trump’s own internal polling says his terrible record pillaging the environment is a huge obstacle to his re-election.

Inslee hypes presidential campaign on Daily Show

On Monday, Inslee debuted his community climate justice plan, which lays out his approach to solving America’s problems through a climate change lens. The plan specifically addresses issues of equity and justice.

“I come here to this zip code, one of the most polluted places in the country,” Inslee said from Detroit, zip code 48217. “To listen to the communities whose children are victimized breathing the pollution, breathing toxins from these refineries.”

“I’m proud that we proposed an equity screen, so we screen decision making so we make these investments in the right places so we deal with economic and racial injustice,” he said.

“We should not have a president attacking cities, we should have a president building cities,” Inslee added, referring to President Trump’s most recent controversial tweets.

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