(Bloomberg) -- Washington Governor Jay Inslee vowed on Thursday to defeat an attempt to repeal his state’s landmark climate law, calling it a powerful tool to curb carbon pollution, create jobs and ensure low-income communities share in the prosperity of a clean economy.
“We do not intend to lose,” he said at the Bloomberg Green Festival in Seattle. “We do not intend to surrender to a pollution blanket that allows special interests to rip us off and then burn us up.”
Inslee, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who made climate a centerpiece of his campaign, is completing his third term of governor. The state’s Climate Commitment Act is the signature achievement of Inslee’s tenure and mandates a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over 1990 levels by 2050.
The main mechanism to achieve that target is a carbon market that sets caps on greenhouse gasses and requires major industrial polluters to purchase credits for every ton of emissions. The number of available credits declines over time, forcing polluters to emit less or pay more.
Since the market began operating in 2023, it has generated nearly $2 billion that the state has invested in climate programs, with a portion dedicated to communities most affected by pollution by helping to finance heat pumps, electric cars and clean energy initiatives.
But an initiative on Washington’s November ballot bankrolled by a Seattle-area investor would repeal the law and bar similar carbon trading schemes from being enacted. That would likely derail the state’s efforts to reach its 2050 net zero goal. Leading opposition to Initiative 2117 is a team of rivals that include organized labor, environmental groups, alongside oil giant BP Plc, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Just the prospect of repeal appears to be a factor in the falling price of emissions credits as some companies may be putting off purchases until after the election. A June auction of emissions credits brought in $189 million compared to nearly $557 million at a May 2023 auction, according to the Washington Department of Ecology.
Inslee said on Thursday that such fluctuations are normal in carbon markets. “It's a stable market and importantly, all of the credits were sold,” he said of the June auction. “So there is a demand for this. We think the system is working.”
Beyond the economic benefits of the law, Inslee called for framing the climate fight as the moral issue of our time. “I looked out my window this morning and I was reminded that all of the kelp around Bainbridge Island has disappeared,” he said. “Our kids can’t go outside because of the smoke they're choking on from the fires in Canada and from our own forests. They’re seeing salmon runs decline. People are demanding that we should respond to give them solutions.”
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