Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson released a statement today on the Trump administration plans to roll back the Clean Power Plan.
"This proposal would replace one of the nation’s most powerful tools to fight climate change with a sham that guarantees the United States will no longer work at a federal level to reverse these threats to our health and economies. Encouraging new investments in the nation’s dirtiest sources of energy is an embarrassing and reckless abdication of U.S. leadership. Such actions fly in the face of the global effort to fight climate change, a goal embraced by every other nation in the world. By rolling back the Clean Power Plan, the administration is putting the health and security of all Americans at risk. Their own analysis says thousands of additional people will die in our country as a result of the increased pollution allowed by this plan.
"This deadly rollback abandons the government’s obligation to protect our health and reduce carbon pollution, in favor of propping up the dying coal industry at precisely the time we need to be transitioning to clean energy options. We’ve proven in Washington state that it is possible to create jobs through the clean energy economy and protect health and our environment.
"The impacts of carbon pollution know no borders. Washingtonians know how harmful climate change is to our health, as we are suffering through horrific wildfires, extreme heat, and historically unhealthy air quality levels. A rollback of the Clean Power Plan will do nothing to help the air we breathe, will fail to sustain and grow the clean jobs our workers and their children need, and promulgates wide-ranging and long-term deadly impacts both here in Washington and around the world.
"We will not stand by and allow this cynical action to threaten our state. Washington has stepped up to challenge the Trump administration’s damaging and unlawful actions in court – and we haven’t lost a case yet.
"On behalf of our state, our environment, and Washingtonians concerned about the impacts of global climate change, we will challenge this unlawful action in court."