A fossil fuel-free future: Wash. Gov. Inslee — 'We're going to build jobs like crazy'

Washington State Governor and presidental candidate Jay Inslee signs five climate change bills into law that will reduce carbon emissions, decrease pollution, boost jobs and increase public health, Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at Central Park in the Rainier Vista neighborhood. The bills include SB 5116, HB 1112, HB 1257, HB 1444, HB 2042. less Washington State Governor and presidental candidate Jay Inslee signs five climate change bills into law that will reduce carbon emissions, decrease pollution, boost jobs and increase public health, Tuesday, May ... more Photo: Genna Martin, SEATTLEPI Photo: Genna Martin, SEATTLEPI Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close A fossil fuel-free future: Wash. Gov. Inslee — 'We're going to build jobs like crazy' 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

The "long time coming" for energy conservation in Washington ended with arrival of four bills signed Tuesday by Gov. Jay Inslee, giving the Evergreen State America's strongest clean power standard, lower greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, and beginnings of a hybrid electric ferry fleet.

"O.K., let's go party on," shouted Inslee at an event Tuesday, atop a stage at Rainier Vista loaded down with Democratic politicians plus a line of little kids to create the TV image of a cleaner tomorrow.

The day marked the latest in a string of conservation triumphs for this Washington dating back a half-century to the 1968 North Cascades Act, which created a national park and two big wilderness areas.

But the "greening" of Washington has taken a sharp turn since days when both Republican (Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford) and Democratic (Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton Barack Obama) presidents backed preservation of the state's "crown jewels"

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The energy transformation was developed in defiance of President Trump, an unreconstructed champion of fossil fuels. Trump recently claimed, falsely and without evidence, that wind turbines cause cancer.

"Wind turbines don't cause cancer, they create jobs," said Inslee, who has watched energy generating wind farms pop up across Eastern Washington.

The initiative for clean energy is now coming from the bottom up. Legislatures in Washington, California, Hawaii and New Mexico, plus the U.S. Climate Alliance that now embraces 24 of the 50 states -- states that are driving the nation's economy.

"Never before have state governments been more important to this country than they are now," said State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, the lead sponsor of clean power legislation in Olympia.

Carlyle mused that the energy bills represent an alternative to the brutish future preached by Trump. If you combine clean energy, social tolerance, international trade, and decent wages, he said, "maybe is what will give us all a better life."

The legislation signed by Inslee was summed up in a phrase coined by Carlyle: "Deep de-carbonization." The highlights:

--Power: The state's electrical utilities must get off coal power by 2025, -- the bill says you can't sell coal power generated out-of-state to Washington customers -- and move to a complete clean energy future by 2045.

The bill likely spells doom for the Colstrip 3 and 4 power plants in Montana, and the Jim Bridger plant in Wyoming. The Bridger facility is owned by PacifiCorp, which supplies electricity to Benton and Walla Walla Counties.

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--Buildings: The state will embark on a first-in-the-nation energy efficiency standard for buildings. Any commercial building 50,000 square feet or larger must comply in phases, beginning in 2026.

The conversion to energy efficiency is expected to be a job generator -- and a power saver. Buildings currently account for 27 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that has risen as industrial emissions have fallen.

--Transportation -- Clean fuels legislation failed to pass the Legislature, but tax incentives encourage electric vehicle sales. Inslee wants 50,000 electric vehicles (EV's) on state roads by 2020.

The state is using millions from the Volkswagon emissions to build charging outlets. The Legislature O.k.ed building the state's first new electric hybrid ferry plus conversion of two ferries to electricity , with $140 million of funding for the next biennium.

--The state will phase down hydrofluorocarbons, greenhouse gases that can be thousands of times more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

It's a very big deal.With his hyperbole stimulated by a sunny day, Inslee declared: "Let us go forth from this time and place to declare that Washington is leading the nation in the effort to fight climate change."

The cause is one to which Inslee has devoted his political life, and made centerpiece of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

As a member of Congress, he helped shape an energy conservation and efficiency package that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, only to be delayed to death by Republicans in the Senate.

"It has been a long time coming, hasn't it," the Governor said Tuesday.

The result, from a Democratic-run Legislature, was "a climate package we have never seen before in the state's history," in words of State Rep Gael Tarleton, D-Seattle.

During major conservation battles of years past, hostile business interests created front groups. They created "astroturf" citizen front groups, while filling the airwaves with predictions that Washington would become a new Appalachia if old-growth forests were protected and wild places protected.

The dire predictions, crafted by skilled advertising executives, proved to be dead wrong. Similar predictions were heard on the floor of the Washington State Senate over the clean power legislation.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Washington state is now the United States' 10th fastest growing economy, knocking Massachusetts down to No. 11.

"We have done something truly historic here in Washington," Inslee said. As well, he added, "We've going to build jobs like crazy across Washington."