Cheat sheet: How Gov. Jay Inslee would address climate change

[brooklynite]

Politico

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday unveiled his plan to fight climate change, which he says he’d begin to implement on the first day of his presidency.

The Democrat’s vision for a decade-long mobilization to combat climate change includes having the nation’s utilities powered entirely by carbon-neutral power by 2030. It also calls for all new smaller vehicles and buses to reach zero emissions and for new commercial and residential buildings to produce no carbon emissions by 2030. It would also close the nation’s coal fleet by 2030, while proposing support for communities and workers affected by those closures.

Inslee did not offer a price tag for the plan, nor any suggestion of how he’d fund it. That’s likely to rankle fellow Democrats, many of whom have previously voiced concern, along with Republicans, that decarbonizing the economy that quickly is impossible.

The plan would generate millions of new jobs for people working in clean energy sectors and building more sustainable infrastructure, according to Inslee. It would benefit residents suffering greater public health impacts from pollution or severe weather exacerbated by climate change. Inslee says his plan would also specifically seek to ensure a “just transition” for communities currently reliant on fossil fuels. A federal report last fall, echoing years of previous science, warned that economies in every region of the country would face hundreds of billions of dollars in annual disruption by midcentury because of climate change.