Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) argued on Saturday that a rapid and dramatic transition to a clean-energy economy could boost the fortunes of labor unions, particularly those that represent building trades and manufacturing workers.

Inslee was one of 19 presidential candidates to speak at a presidential candidate forum hosted by the public-sector labor union AFSCME in Las Vegas.

HuffPost’s Amanda Terkel, who moderated the discussion alongside Jon Ralston of The Nevada Independent, asked Inslee to make the case to unions, including many in the building trades that have been skeptical of bold climate proposals like the Green New Deal. A group of those unions, many of which benefit from fossil-fuel industry jobs, penned a letter to lawmakers who introduced the Green New Deal resolution in March that denounced the proposal.

Inslee, who has laid out detailed policy proposals aimed at bridging the divide between climate activists and organized labor, began his response with a joke.

“Where perhaps [President Donald Trump] has his biggest failure is when he says wind turbines cause cancer. We Democrats know they cause jobs,” he said.

“We know that one of the greatest opportunities for good, clean-energy union jobs is in the clean energy economy,” Inslee added. “We know that we have no choice but to develop a clean energy economy; the science is clear in this regard. And when we do that, we’ve got to make sure the jobs are here, not just in China; make sure that they’re good-paying union jobs, not low-paying jobs; and make sure that we do it in a timely fashion, not too late.”