'This Week' Transcript 7-23-23: Gov. Jay Inslee, Mayor Grace Elena Garner & Rep. Michael McCaul

Interview

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Well, look, the climate change problem, the fuse has been burning for decades, and now the climate change bomb has gone off. The scientists are telling us that this is the new age. This is the age of consequences because whatever we thought of climate change last year, we now understand that the beast is at the door. We knew this beast of climate change was coming for us, but now, it's pounding on the door.

And I think it's interesting, the most sort of summary of this situation, what the scientific community is telling us now, is that the earth is screaming at us, and that is the situation. I talked to a leading international scientist the other day who told me that we knew this was going to happen to us, but it's happening to us maybe two decades earlier than we really thought could -- could be in the realm of the possible.

So we have to dramatically increase our efforts. That is necessary. Now, the good news -- there's good news here. We can do this. Look, we're electrifying our transportation fleet. We're electrifying our homes. This is a solvable problem, but we need to stop using fossil fuels. That is the only solution to this massive assault on humanity.

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Well, we can take short-term action. Look, we've said we're not going to be selling internal combustion cars after 2035. We're electrifying our ferries here in Washington state. We have a law that demands 100 percent clean energy in a -- in a couple decades. We're (INAUDIBLE).

I do want to note that, that this is not just something for the federal government. States can act. Our state is acting. We have 23 states in the U.S. Climate Alliance. And this is necessary. We've had tremendous action under President Biden's leadership with the Inflation Reduction Act. And, unfortunately, the Republicans are trying to repeal that now. But we need to go further and faster. And states can go further and faster. And we are doing that.

And, again, the good news is, all around my state, I can't turn over a rock without seeing new jobs associated with clean aviation fuel, with new types of batteries. It's very exciting what's going on right now in inventing a new economy. And we're doing that right in Washington state and people are getting great jobs because of this.

So, there's two parts to this story. This thing is now the age of consequences. The bomb has gone off. But we do have the ability to restrain fossil fuels if we make the commitments we need to. And I'm glad that we're in a state that's doing that.

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Not yet.

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Well, not -- not yet.

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Exactly.

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Exactly. Look --

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You lead. You tell your kids to lead. When you send them to summer camp you say, lead. And the United States should be and is the leader in this effort. And people are coming along. We need to -- to lead. And we need to lead not just from a moral standpoint, but from our self-interest standpoint. We need to build these jobs here and build these economies here, these battery companies that are coming in throughout the Midwest.

We're rebuilding the rust belt in the Midwest United States into the Silicon belt, and the belt of -- of knew innovation. So, this is a self-interest for us to take action. And we're certainly committed to it. And, again, if you want to be an economic leader, follow Washington state in what we're doing. We're -- we're building the, you know, the -- the largest fuel cell in the world, powering the largest truck in the world.

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New kinds of batteries we have invented here. You bet.

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Well, we can't wait for Donald Trump to figure this out. Time -- we don't have time to mess around to wait for this knucklehead to figure this out. We just got to make sure he's not in office. And the way we do this is vote against climate deniers. Vote against people who refuse to assist this moral and economic crisis that we have. You can't wait for these folks, you've just got to make sure they're not in office where they can do damage. Let them go off and play golf. We'll solve this problem. It's a solvable problem if we work together.

And people are coming around to this very, very rapidly because their homes are burning down. They're choking on smoke from the Canadian fires. When Ron DeSantis wants to go swimming, he can't because the water is like a sauna, like a hot tub off his beaches. We've just got to make sure those folks are not in office. We don't have the luxury of allowing these people to destroy the planet.

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You bet.

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