Speaker 1: Hi everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hi Wipsmarties,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Work in Progress. We
Speaker 1: are now within a week of the twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are stressed and worried,
Speaker 1: and how could we not be. We're trying to fight
Speaker 1: fascism at the ballot box. And when I feel afraid
Speaker 1: of potential looming doom, I try to look to the
Speaker 1: people who make me feel inspired. I look for the helpers.
Speaker 1: And one of the best helpers we've got in our
Speaker 1: country happens to be the governor of Washington State, Governor
Speaker 1: Jay Insley. He is actually the longest serving current governor
Speaker 1: in the US. He's finishing up twelve years as the
Speaker 1: governor of Washington, and he is leaving behind a legacy
Speaker 1: both in Washington State and on the national stage as
Speaker 1: a champion for the environment, for clean energy, and for
Speaker 1: environmental justice, which also makes him a champion of community,
Speaker 1: kids and incredible job creation. Jay entered public service back
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty five, fighting for a new public high school,
Speaker 1: and four years later he became a state representative in
Speaker 1: the fourteenth Legislative District in Washington. He has gone on
Speaker 1: to have an incredible career. After returning to private law,
Speaker 1: he was appointed the regional director of the US Department
Speaker 1: of Health and Human Services. He oversaw programs in Alaska, Idah, Oregon,
Speaker 1: and Washington. In the late nineties, his family returned to
Speaker 1: Puget Sound and he represented the first Congressional District for
Speaker 1: thirteen years, and in twenty twelve, he was elected Washington's
Speaker 1: twenty third governor. Governor Insley has focused on building a
Speaker 1: bright future for Washingtonians and using that future that he
Speaker 1: helps work on in his home state to set an
Speaker 1: example for the US. Under his leadership, Washington's economy has
Speaker 1: been ranked number one for both businesses and workers. The
Speaker 1: state has become a vital roadmap for the rest of
Speaker 1: the nation as they have achieved these incredible wins, and
Speaker 1: a lot of that is thanks to the governor. He
Speaker 1: has steadily led the way for profound social and economic changes,
Speaker 1: including raising the minimum wage, passing best in the nation
Speaker 1: family leave, providing sickly to every Washington worker, and making
Speaker 1: historic investments in transportation and education. Governor Insley is living
Speaker 1: proof that progress and prosperity go hand in hand. He
Speaker 1: has firmly established the state of Washington as a national
Speaker 1: leader in the fight for climate change and for happiness.
Speaker 1: And I am so excited today to talk to him
Speaker 1: about how he's done it. He happens to be a
Speaker 1: national board member of the environmental advocacy group climate Power,
Speaker 1: that I love working with out in my advocacy world,
Speaker 1: and I just can't wait to talk to him about
Speaker 1: all of his amazing achievements, his family, his love of education,
Speaker 1: and why he fights for the environment as well as
Speaker 1: he does. Hint, hint, we all need it. Let's hear
Speaker 1: from Governor Insley before we dive into the election, and
Speaker 1: I know we're inside of a week now. I want
Speaker 1: to go back a little bit because you have such
Speaker 1: a storied career and what you've built in Washington, you know,
Speaker 1: from growing an incredible jobs economy, seeing incredible happiness statistics
Speaker 1: with your citizenry, and also the incredible environmental progress you've made.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a big bucket full of really good things.
Speaker 1: It's a long and amazing career. But I want to
Speaker 1: ask you to go back to before it began. What
Speaker 1: was it really that in inspired you to look at
Speaker 1: and then enter the world of public service. Was it
Speaker 1: something you'd always thought you might do from the time
Speaker 1: that maybe you were a young boy, or did it
Speaker 1: happen more in your adult life.
Speaker 2: No. I was actually going to be a small forward
Speaker 2: for the Boston Celtics when I was growing up, so
Speaker 2: that dream didn't come true. And then I was going
Speaker 2: to be a physician. That dream didn't come true. So
Speaker 2: I'm just a record of squashed dreams here. No. I
Speaker 2: had not thought about public service until like my mid thirties.
Speaker 2: And the way Trudy and I got involved in this
Speaker 2: was we lived in a small town in eastern Washington.
Speaker 2: We were raising three kids and yeah, mine in our
Speaker 2: own business and enjoying life. And then they were going
Speaker 2: to start double shifting our local high school, and you know,
Speaker 2: so you have two different ships because they didn't have
Speaker 2: room for everybody. And I thought, why don't we build
Speaker 2: a high school. The answer was we were kind of
Speaker 2: new in town and they'd failed five bondish shoes in
Speaker 2: a row trying to build a new school, and I
Speaker 2: thought was ridiculous. So we thought, well, let's run another
Speaker 2: bond issue. And there were only two other couples or
Speaker 2: another couple to help us we went out and started
Speaker 2: an effort, and we passed it on the sixth try,
Speaker 2: and shortly thereafter, the Washington State Legislature, in their infinite wisdom,
Speaker 2: cut our funding formula and half of the money we
Speaker 2: were going to get from the state. So we had
Speaker 2: gone out to our community members saying, look, we're going
Speaker 2: to get X number of dollars from state, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden they cut it half, making the
Speaker 2: project impossible. So I became aggrieved about that. I started
Speaker 2: going to Olympia raising hell with our legislators, and from
Speaker 2: that just sort of concluded, listen, if I'm going to
Speaker 2: help on these kind of issues, I should be in
Speaker 2: office and start. I ran for the legislature in a
Speaker 2: very heavily Republican district with no chance to win, and
Speaker 2: one in a huge upset, and the rest has been
Speaker 2: a very broken road to doing what I'm doing now,
Speaker 2: and I've had a great run as governor. So that's
Speaker 2: how we got involved, and I would recommend it to
Speaker 2: anyone public services for all. It's it's discouragement and frustration
Speaker 2: is it's just such a fantastic thing to be able
Speaker 2: to help your community in ways large and small. So
Speaker 2: jump in if you're thinking about it. The water's fine. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of people ask me if i'd run, and
Speaker 1: I think for a while, I didn't take it very seriously.
Speaker 1: And now I'm going maybe that's my you know, my
Speaker 1: phase too when I when I cross fifty, I don't know.
Speaker 2: We'll see, well that's fifty. As you're young. At fifty,
Speaker 2: you're very very young. You're just learning. I agree, fifty.
Speaker 2: So No. What I've found is that it's a very
Speaker 2: positive experience, even running for office, even if you're not elected.
Speaker 2: You know, half the time candidates are not elected, right,
Speaker 2: But I have found there are very positive experiences, although
Speaker 2: trying and painful, because you get connected to your community.
Speaker 2: You meet so many more people, You go to places
Speaker 2: in your community you never went. I'll just share a
Speaker 2: little experience for you. When I ran for the legislature,
Speaker 2: I lived in a little town called Yakoma, Washington. And
Speaker 2: you know, I doorbelled twenty five thousand homes between two races. Wow.
Speaker 2: And in doing that, I went to places in my
Speaker 2: community I had never gone before. Physically, you know, usually
Speaker 2: you get a rat and me you just you know,
Speaker 2: the way you drive the school, you know, a way
Speaker 2: you drive the work and that's just kind of what
Speaker 2: you know. And I just got out and met so
Speaker 2: many people in different areas, and frankly, one of the
Speaker 2: eye openers in that experience for me was the poverty
Speaker 2: that existed in my community that certainly there's some degree
Speaker 2: I was not oblivious to but had not recognized as much.
Speaker 2: And so anyway, runner for office is a great experience.
Speaker 2: It's better when you win. I've done both in my time,
Speaker 2: and it's much better to win, sure, but it is
Speaker 2: a very connecting experience when you're through your hat in
Speaker 2: the ring.
Speaker 1: Well as a non elected I would just like to
Speaker 1: thank you for being willing to acknowledge that sometimes you lose,
Speaker 1: and when you do, you have to be honest about it.
Speaker 2: Indeed, I've lost several races and lost a race in Congress,
Speaker 2: which was painful to leave Congress, and so I've had
Speaker 2: that experience. Each one of them, to some degree, have
Speaker 2: led to something more adventurous in my life. Sure, I
Speaker 2: lost a governor's race in nineteen ninety six, and but
Speaker 2: met some people on my team that are still with me,
Speaker 2: and so that was a positive experience itself. And that's
Speaker 2: why I'm saying is that these when you enter public
Speaker 2: service or you want to, it connects you with new
Speaker 2: people and it can be a positive thing for you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's really beautiful, and I think it's very
Speaker 1: refreshing to be reminded of the joy that comes with
Speaker 1: public service. You know. It's it's certainly something we're seeing
Speaker 1: contrasted in this election that is upon us. We've got
Speaker 1: one side talking about the you know, the joy of
Speaker 1: the multifaceted fabric of America, and one espousing adoration for fascists.
Speaker 1: And I know that the not so positive side of
Speaker 1: the race touched you, particularly in your state, because you know,
Speaker 1: with the new investigation that came out just last week,
Speaker 1: it showed that in twenty twenty, then President Donald Trump
Speaker 1: actually refused to act on your disaster aid request for
Speaker 1: the wildfires because you'd had a personal dispute with him,
Speaker 1: and we went through a lot of those same threats
Speaker 1: in my home state of California. You know, he didn't
Speaker 1: want to give us aid as a quote unquote blue state.
Speaker 1: And I'm just curious, you know, if you could explain
Speaker 1: to the folks at home what kind of impact the
Speaker 1: the abuse of the highest office in the land can
Speaker 1: have on a state. How do you, you know, a
Speaker 1: family man and a committed public servant who got into
Speaker 1: this to make sure kids could go to school, how
Speaker 1: do you kind of fight back against that level of
Speaker 1: both depravity and danger when you're dealing with natural disasters?
Speaker 1: You know what is I guess, I guess The question
Speaker 1: really is where do you even begin to advocate? How
Speaker 1: do you stand up to that?
Speaker 2: Well, you start at the beginning, which is to vote.
Speaker 2: That's the most effective thing you can do is to vote.
Speaker 2: You know, and my whole mantra in after thirty years
Speaker 2: in public service, it's a heck of a lot easier
Speaker 2: to keep scoundrels out of office than to try to
Speaker 2: reform them once they're in. It's very difficult to reform
Speaker 2: narcissistic social paths. It's much more effective to keep them
Speaker 2: out of office and let them go play golf and
Speaker 2: where they can't do any damage. And that's what's really effective.
Speaker 2: And that's why the next week is so important for
Speaker 2: all of us to all of the work we can
Speaker 2: do to keep somebody who's so destructive out of office.
Speaker 2: But really, and I'm very much in touch with what
Speaker 2: you said, one of our candidates is driven by anger
Speaker 2: and fear, that's the motivating thing in life, and one
Speaker 2: is driven by hope and optimism. And I'm more of
Speaker 2: the optimistic. Hope is much better for your society to
Speaker 2: make decisions based on that. But anyway, the thing you
Speaker 2: do first is keep scoundrels out of office. And that's
Speaker 2: what you do. And you get up every day and
Speaker 2: do everything you can do. And now, in our case,
Speaker 2: everybody who's listening to us, I hope you will call
Speaker 2: anybody you know, an old friend, an old college roommate,
Speaker 2: it and in a lot in Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: North Carolina, Arizona, and call them. I hope you're doing.
Speaker 2: So that's something you can do. And then somebody run
Speaker 2: for office yourself. But those are the things we can
Speaker 2: do in the next seven days.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In the scope, coming back to this issue of what
Speaker 2: happened in our town, we had a town burned down
Speaker 2: called Malden, Washington, small little town. Eighty percent of the
Speaker 2: homes were totally destroyed. They're kind of an isolated community
Speaker 2: and Trump willfully, maliciously refused to help those people. And
Speaker 2: it wasn't me. I wasn't you know, I have a
Speaker 2: nice house to live in. It wasn't me who's suffering
Speaker 2: as them, And he consciously refused to help those poor people.
Speaker 2: And it shows that both how destructive a president is
Speaker 2: who decides to govern out of dominance and aggression and
Speaker 2: out of his sense of victimization and juvenile just juvenile behavior.
Speaker 2: He was just juvenile. He's just a little temper tamper, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because I dared to stand up against his Muslim band
Speaker 2: and some of his climate change denial. He just can't
Speaker 2: stand that. He's so thin skinned. So I had these
Speaker 2: families that didn't know what to do for four months
Speaker 2: because we couldn't get the disaster decoration. As soon as
Speaker 2: Trump as Biden came in within I think ten days,
Speaker 2: we got the disaster decoration. But for four months he
Speaker 2: had this whole community that could not move forward. So
Speaker 2: it's very destructive. And if you ever ever dealt with
Speaker 2: people who've suffered this kind of disaster as they had
Speaker 2: North Carolina recently, the loss of your home is so
Speaker 2: psychologically damaging. You're in such you know, fragile state. To
Speaker 2: have somebody the highest president of the United states. Tell
Speaker 2: you I'm not going to help you is so madening,
Speaker 2: and so County is not a Trump supporter just from
Speaker 2: that experience, and he did in other places California as well.
Speaker 2: We're not the only victim. And he didn't help Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: Of course, now we know what his friends are saying
Speaker 2: about Puerto Rico. He went and thought it was so
Speaker 2: much fun to send, you know, so tossed tissue paper
Speaker 2: to the people and then deny relief. Right. It just
Speaker 2: shows you how the importance of keeping odious characters out
Speaker 2: of the White House.
Speaker 1: Certainly, and now a word from our sponsors that I
Speaker 1: really enjoy and I think you will too. I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, in particular because you are so climate forward.
Speaker 1: You know, you've been dubbed the greenest governor in America,
Speaker 1: which I think is so cool. We are currently in
Speaker 1: this moment where, to your point, we're watching these horrible
Speaker 1: things happen not just to states like yours and mine,
Speaker 1: Washington and California, but you know, our friends in Asheville
Speaker 1: and around North Carolina have been devastated. I was lucky
Speaker 1: enough to call North Carolina home for ten years, so
Speaker 1: I'm always going to love it. You know, my my
Speaker 1: partner's home state of Florida was just absolutely devastated by superstorms,
Speaker 1: you know, back to back hurricanes and tornadoes. It's really
Speaker 1: undeniable to see what our impact on the planet is.
Speaker 1: And yet we've got Project twenty twenty five talking about
Speaker 1: removing climate change from not just you know, the discourse
Speaker 1: and the funding, but even searchable things online for the government.
Speaker 1: It feels mind boggling. And I guess I'm wondering, because
Speaker 1: you're our resident expert on climate, between the two of us,
Speaker 1: if you could kind of give the listeners at home
Speaker 1: a kind of this versus that explanation of what Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five's impact on the climate would be versus
Speaker 1: Vice President Harris's climate plan, which, by the way, she
Speaker 1: just announced incredible facets of that for Puerto Rico specifically
Speaker 1: this week, and I love to read about it.
Speaker 2: We start on Vice President Harris and Tim Wallace's positions
Speaker 2: on clean energy. I know both these people, and I
Speaker 2: know they both are really committed to helping the positive growth,
Speaker 2: both from our economic growth and our health improvements by
Speaker 2: defeating climate change. It's close to them. I remember having
Speaker 2: a conversation with Vice President last year in the White
Speaker 2: House about this, and it's clear to me that she's
Speaker 2: very motivated to and has been for years actually to
Speaker 2: help us mobilize and build a clean energy economy. Tim
Speaker 2: Wall's is the same. He's done wonderful things in his
Speaker 2: state in Minnesota with very narrow legislative margins as well.
Speaker 2: So we really have a great team to do what
Speaker 2: America does best, which is to innovate, to invent, to create,
Speaker 2: to build, to solve this problem. Not to hide from problems,
Speaker 2: but to confront them. To use your heads, and this
Speaker 2: is about whether you're using your head or not. Luck
Speaker 2: the science is so abundantly clear on this, it's beyond imagination.
Speaker 2: We're all seeing it from a personal basis right now.
Speaker 2: And also it is obvious that this is a great
Speaker 2: economic opportunity and that's why we're growing jobs like crazy.
Speaker 2: Under the Inflation Reduction Act. The Vice President of President
Speaker 2: Biden pulled off a miracle passing this and now we're
Speaker 2: seeing the tremendous benefits in my state of job creation
Speaker 2: with the world leading fusion company, world leading silicon anoid
Speaker 2: battery company, we're just hiring people like crazy here because
Speaker 2: of their leadership. So I want to start without really
Speaker 2: these are the right to two people for the job
Speaker 2: at the right moment. And now we'll go to the
Speaker 2: opposite end of the spectrum where if you had to
Speaker 2: design a brain dead people to violate the common sense
Speaker 2: of Americans who invented the airplane and software and everything else,
Speaker 2: who wanted to be anted Deluvia just because they're afraid.
Speaker 2: These are very fearful people. They're afraid. They are afraid
Speaker 2: that we can't beat climate change. That's the basis of
Speaker 2: why they ignore the client the science of this. They're
Speaker 2: afraid that we're not smart enough to build electric cars
Speaker 2: or solar panels or winter They're afraid that we can't
Speaker 2: figure this out. Now they're wrong, and they will just
Speaker 2: dismantle everything that they can touch in what is a
Speaker 2: very effective machine of creation that we've developed in the
Speaker 2: United States right now and in my state too. So
Speaker 2: anything then get their hands in, they'll take a wrench
Speaker 2: and break it because for some reason they think it's
Speaker 2: a plot to destroy America. And why they develop that paranoia,
Speaker 2: it's difficult to know. Some psychologists someday will have to
Speaker 2: figure that out. But you can't overstate the danger. It
Speaker 2: would mean four years of lack of progress by the
Speaker 2: federal government if they in fact get the White House.
Speaker 2: Now that's the bad news. Here's some good news. In
Speaker 2: the event that happened. I don't believe it will happen,
Speaker 2: but in the event happened, our states can continue to advance.
Speaker 2: We have twenty five states in the US Climb Alliance,
Speaker 2: Jerry Brown and I started it. We have twenty four
Speaker 2: states now in the US Clime Alliance, all of which
Speaker 2: themselves can move the climate agenda forward. So I have
Speaker 2: a Cabinet invest bill, or clean fuel standard of building
Speaker 2: efficiency standards centers for evs, all of that can continue.
Speaker 2: So we're going to continue to move the ball as
Speaker 2: we are in my state in twenty four other states.
Speaker 2: And by the way, those twenty four states represent sixty
Speaker 2: percent of the whole US economy and the fastest growing
Speaker 2: states economically. And one of the reasons they're fastest growing
Speaker 2: because they're doing this clean energy work.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, Governor, it's almost like doing
Speaker 1: clean energy work is good for the economy and for
Speaker 1: the people.
Speaker 2: How about that? Pretty amazing. I am thrilled by the
Speaker 2: progress for making you know, look at this is the
Speaker 2: ying and yang of life. We're all disturbed by forest
Speaker 2: fires and floods and heat domes, and you know, we're
Speaker 2: so disturbed by that. But on the opposite end, we
Speaker 2: ought to be thrilled about the progress we're making with
Speaker 2: these new innovative manufacturing jobs. And the people who are
Speaker 2: building these products not all rocket science. Their machinists or electricians.
Speaker 2: They're sheet metal workers, they're iron workers. That's the people
Speaker 2: actually doing this work, and they're so we got to
Speaker 2: be really thinking in a positive way to be confident
Speaker 2: that the work we're doing is working. There's been rarely,
Speaker 2: maybe since the you know, the day of steam, of
Speaker 2: the invention of the steam engine, where there's been this
Speaker 2: rapid industrial growth in our country. So this is a
Speaker 2: moment of the joy of creation that we're experiencing right now.
Speaker 1: I love the way you frame that because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of foods and and understandably, you know, there are
Speaker 1: industries that make a lot of money off polluting the planet,
Speaker 1: and they spend a lot of money to make people
Speaker 1: afraid of new technology, of innovation, of changing job markets.
Speaker 1: But what you all have done in Washington is where
Speaker 1: the proof is in the pudding right, You've shifted into
Speaker 1: a greener economy, and you have a booming jobs market,
Speaker 1: you have better health outcomes for folks. You know you
Speaker 1: spoke earlier this year. I listened to you on the
Speaker 1: Volts podcast back in June, and I loved the episode.
Speaker 1: I know you guys did it live. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: town hall, but it was somewhere you know, in your state,
Speaker 1: and you talked about how you looked at the records
Speaker 1: of asthma in Washington, and as a lifelong asthmatic, My
Speaker 1: ears really perked up then. And you knew that if
Speaker 1: certain industries were changed into greener ones, kids and families
Speaker 1: would have cleaner air to breathe, people would have safer
Speaker 1: jobs to go to, Their jobs would be much more
Speaker 1: secure because they'd be jobs of the future. So I
Speaker 1: know that, simply by being in a way, Washington as
Speaker 1: a state is disproving the fear around it a changing,
Speaker 1: you know, green job economy. But what would you say
Speaker 1: to voters who perhaps haven't done as deep a dive,
Speaker 1: who might not be social science nerds like us, who
Speaker 1: who don't know what's possible when the economy of jobs
Speaker 1: shifts toward these more sustainable options.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess what I would say is, and maybe
Speaker 2: this is easier in my state because you know where
Speaker 2: the state that really made commercial jet airliners possible, yeah,
Speaker 2: or the state that really led the development of software,
Speaker 2: or the state that are now leading new kind of
Speaker 2: retail systems. So innovation and change has been a very
Speaker 2: positive thing for my state. So it's maybe easier for
Speaker 2: people in my state to recognize groundbreaking, earthshaking changes that
Speaker 2: make our lives healthier and richer economically. So what I
Speaker 2: would say is, try to get in touch with your
Speaker 2: positive vision that recognizes our ability as people to build
Speaker 2: new whole ways of living, and recognizing the things in
Speaker 2: your own life that you've experienced. You know, twenty years ago,
Speaker 2: we weren't walking around cell phones, right, We had these
Speaker 2: kiny things that were you know, you'd had to have
Speaker 2: a wire to your dashboard if you're lucky to have
Speaker 2: a car phone. That was a big deal. Look at
Speaker 2: the changes in your own life that have been so
Speaker 2: radical and it's been better mostly except when our kids
Speaker 2: we can't get them off our cell phones. But in
Speaker 2: your own life, look at how fast we can recognize
Speaker 2: the ability to do things in a more productive way.
Speaker 2: When you think about it, it may be new, but
Speaker 2: it's not entirely foreign because we've experienced this in our
Speaker 2: own lives. You know, I came up with a rotary phone, right,
Speaker 2: So in my lifetime we've run from a rotary phone
Speaker 2: to quantum mechanics and a cell phone. Just realize that
Speaker 2: we can do this. I guess you know, c P
Speaker 2: is the right mantra on this because we're doing it
Speaker 2: at big time. And just look around the jobs your
Speaker 2: kids are now are getting. You know, they're getting jobs
Speaker 2: in clean energy. We all sometimes sweat around our children
Speaker 2: and grandchildren, but they're getting these wonderful new careers that
Speaker 2: are happening, and they're happening. The other thing I would
Speaker 2: say is it's all across the United States. It's not
Speaker 2: just the coast, it's not just blue districts. Actually, the
Speaker 2: greatest job creation is it's kind of an irony. Have
Speaker 2: been in red states and red districts in Georgia and
Speaker 2: in Tennessee. You know, in Alabama, the enormous construction of
Speaker 2: manufacturing sites that are going on. So it's something that
Speaker 2: is possible for all of us. So I would say
Speaker 2: this guy's the limit. We're making it happen. We should
Speaker 2: feel good about it.
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, it's been really inspiring to me
Speaker 1: to see, you know, particularly with the incredible boosts that
Speaker 1: the Biden Harris administration is given to the economy, and
Speaker 1: the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Act and
Speaker 1: all these big projects, you know, bringing our chips manufacturing
Speaker 1: home and all these other great to your point, technological
Speaker 1: fields of labor, you know, can you talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about You mentioned some of the trades that go
Speaker 1: into this work, but what are some of the green
Speaker 1: jobs that you can talk about, and what would you
Speaker 1: say is some of the impact they're going to have
Speaker 1: on the future of our labor markets.
Speaker 2: Well, the first and the most visible is in the
Speaker 2: construction industry, because we're I mean, you make this happen.
Speaker 2: You got to build things, right. Yeah. Anybody who touches concrete,
Speaker 2: steel tube by fours, anybody who drives a truck, anybody
Speaker 2: who provides supplies at the local hardware store. Everybody in
Speaker 2: the entire construction industry is working right now building this
Speaker 2: clean energy economy. And I'm impressed. My son is a carpenter,
Speaker 2: and so I know I have some connection to actual
Speaker 2: work in our family in which I'm very impressed by.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I remember I was at I had a
Speaker 2: friend named Rick Louby. He started a little tiny company,
Speaker 2: had like eight employees twenty years ago on the shores
Speaker 2: of Lake Union, and he convinced me that we should
Speaker 2: douce research and advanced batteries. And so I got a
Speaker 2: bunch of money in the federal budget about two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven, two thousand and eight to do research on
Speaker 2: advanced batteries. Jump forward to twenty twenty four. He right
Speaker 2: now has under construction the six story buildings in Moses Lake, Washington,
Speaker 2: previously a rural agricultural area, where he's building the most
Speaker 2: advanced silicon ANID battery construction plant in the world. And
Speaker 2: he has a editor right down the street. They are
Speaker 2: building these batteries that can increase the range of your
Speaker 2: car by thirty percent by using this new technology, and
Speaker 2: the people doing that right now. I just remember looking
Speaker 2: up at a ki that was so impressed. I was
Speaker 2: there a couple months ago. He was an iron worker
Speaker 2: and he was standing with one foot on the building
Speaker 2: and one foot on an iron beam suspended by a crane.
Speaker 2: You know, bolting this thing in. I thought, these are talented,
Speaker 2: courageous people. I just admire what they do, and they're
Speaker 2: doing it all over the country right now in the
Speaker 2: construction industry. So hats off to the people who are
Speaker 2: actually building the infrastructure that it can allow us to
Speaker 2: do that. Then you go to the manufacturing jobs, which
Speaker 2: are obvious. These are people, many people high school education.
Speaker 2: They go into a technical training program on how to
Speaker 2: run a cab machine or or a three D printer
Speaker 2: or a lathe, you know, and they go to work
Speaker 2: and these are great careers and great jobs running these
Speaker 2: manufacturing and I point this out there. These are a
Speaker 2: lot of these jobs that do not require a college degree,
Speaker 2: but they're good paying, technologically oriented job because high tech
Speaker 2: manufacturing is technological in its own essence, and we very
Speaker 2: much are dedicated. We have a program called Career Connected
Speaker 2: Learning in our state where we train people. We emphasize
Speaker 2: apprenticeships so you can get a good career without a
Speaker 2: college education. And we think that's a really important emphasis
Speaker 2: that we ought to have, is giving people careers without
Speaker 2: going to college, because these are good paying jobs, long
Speaker 2: term and very dignified. Then you go sort of up
Speaker 2: to you know earlier in the food chain, which is
Speaker 2: the research folks who are inventing these These are all
Speaker 2: new technologies, those are real jobs too. So I started
Speaker 2: to think. Called the Clean Energy Institute the University of
Speaker 2: Washington UH seven eight years ago, and I was there
Speaker 2: for their expansion the other day where again they're advancing
Speaker 2: whole new ways of battery technology. They now have one
Speaker 2: hundred and forty companies who come in and work with
Speaker 2: them to use their facilities to invent all these new technologies.
Speaker 2: So all through the educational and vocational system, these jobs
Speaker 2: can be created and rb created. We want to give
Speaker 2: everybody the thrill of clean energy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And now for our sponsors, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: an accident that as technology is advancing so quickly and
Speaker 1: we're seeing all of these sort of new lanes open
Speaker 1: in the Highway of the future, if you will. We
Speaker 1: see so many young people, so many young voters list
Speaker 1: climate change as one of, if not their top political issue.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious how you look at the young folks,
Speaker 1: not just in your state but around the country. How
Speaker 1: do you see their impact on elections, How do you
Speaker 1: see the way they've changed the conversation around climate.
Speaker 2: Well, I want them to change it as rapidly as possible,
Speaker 2: and I want them to be as vocal, and I
Speaker 2: want to make sure they all vote. I met one
Speaker 2: hundred and forty of them over at Marshing State University
Speaker 2: talking about this issue last Sunday. Yeah, and so I
Speaker 2: am very dedicated to getting this generation to take over
Speaker 2: because they're the ones who are most understanding of the
Speaker 2: science of climate change, and they're the most technologically oriented
Speaker 2: to build these new clean energy industries. So yes, I
Speaker 2: want them to take over as rapidly as possible, and
Speaker 2: I encourage them to do that. And also I'm very
Speaker 2: concerned about them. A couple days before I was there,
Speaker 2: this paper came up talking about the anxiety that a
Speaker 2: lot of our young people are experiencing now around climate
Speaker 2: change because they do understand the challenge. And it's heartbreaking
Speaker 2: to me when I do talk to young people, who are,
Speaker 2: you know, anxious about that. I've talked to a number
Speaker 2: of people said, look, I don't know if I'm going
Speaker 2: to have children. That just breaks my heart that some
Speaker 2: of our young people are thinking in these terms. So
Speaker 2: I both feel for them and respect for them and
Speaker 2: want them to be as politically active as possible. So
Speaker 2: if you know any young people, urge them to make
Speaker 2: sure they vote now. I urge them to go out
Speaker 2: get their cranky uncles to vote, you know, for for
Speaker 2: Harris as well to do something about climate change. So
Speaker 2: that's that's what they're doing. I've I've had quite number
Speaker 2: of rallies in my state around this subject with young people,
Speaker 2: and they're going out and get their families to see
Speaker 2: the light on this because they get.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I love that you do so much with
Speaker 1: young people in your state. And you're also a national
Speaker 1: board member of Climate Power, which is for at home,
Speaker 1: an incredible environmental advocacy group that I'm very honored to
Speaker 1: work with as well. Can you tell folks a little
Speaker 1: more about the organization and its goal and what your
Speaker 1: role is as a national board member.
Speaker 2: Well, our job is to empower young voters. That's like
Speaker 2: we're just empowering them. We're doing whatever we can to
Speaker 2: first inspire them and enable them to recognize their own power.
Speaker 2: And I think this is really important to get people.
Speaker 2: When I talk to young groups, the point I make is, look,
Speaker 2: you're as important as I am. I'm governor you're a
Speaker 2: young citizen, and each of us have almost equal ability
Speaker 2: to influence this because each one of us can we
Speaker 2: get some votes. So my first job is to empower
Speaker 2: young people to recognize the capability that they have, and
Speaker 2: to urge them to become politically active, and to tell
Speaker 2: them why I think it's they will enjoy it. And third,
Speaker 2: just to give them some resources so they can go
Speaker 2: to the right places. You know, we have a couple organizations,
Speaker 2: another one called FUSE in Washington State and it's called
Speaker 2: the Bus. The buses get on the Bus. It's sort
Speaker 2: of a Spike Lee kind of deal, and so we
Speaker 2: provide people a little bit of the logistical help they
Speaker 2: need to go out and change change the world. If
Speaker 2: this generation changed the world, it would be a lot
Speaker 2: better place right now.
Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. Now, when you when you think about
Speaker 1: the you know, the landscape of politics, the sort of
Speaker 1: precipice we're on a week out from the election, where
Speaker 1: we are running on everything from you know, hope to
Speaker 1: a cleaner future. What what do you see that that
Speaker 1: really keeps you going? Is there any you know, kind
Speaker 1: of group or experience that you point to that gets
Speaker 1: you out of bed? First thing, in the morning, Is
Speaker 1: it out in your work world, is it your family?
Speaker 2: For me, my motivation is my grandchildren. I get six grandkids,
Speaker 2: and fundamentally, what I want in life is for them
Speaker 2: to have a chance to enjoy a healthy, robust, enjoyable
Speaker 2: state that I grew up in, where they're snowing the
Speaker 2: mountains in the winter and there's salmon in the rivers
Speaker 2: and there's trees that haven't all burned down. Fundamentally, that's
Speaker 2: what that's my motivation. My dad used to take me
Speaker 2: down to the beach. I remember, I turn over little rocks.
Speaker 2: He was a biology teacher and he tell me about
Speaker 2: the biology of the shoreline. I was very excited about that.
Speaker 2: Now when I see my grandkids turning over rocks and
Speaker 2: looking at the little crabs and limpets, and they have
Speaker 2: that same joy I did at the natural world, and
Speaker 2: I want them to be able to have that in
Speaker 2: their lives and not have an epidemic of asthma and
Speaker 2: be able to look up a mountaineer and see white
Speaker 2: on mountaineer and frankly, unless we change dramatically, they're not
Speaker 2: going to have that in their lifetime. To me, that's
Speaker 2: sort of terrifying to think that they would look up
Speaker 2: a mountaineer and not see any snow. That white dome
Speaker 2: to me is you can always look up a mountaineer
Speaker 2: anywhere Western Washington, and it's this cathedral that we worship.
Speaker 2: So that's my motivation. But my second is the confidence
Speaker 2: I've got from the people I know who are building
Speaker 2: these clean energy jobs and so and so. I feel
Speaker 2: a combination of a demand for action and also a
Speaker 2: capability for successful action. And it's that capability that I
Speaker 2: try to share with people so that they get confidence
Speaker 2: to act. I think, actually, that's our enemy. Here is
Speaker 2: a fear that we can't team this beast, and that
Speaker 2: leads to passivity. What leads to action is confidence in
Speaker 2: ourselves and in our community. And there's a lot of
Speaker 2: reasons to have that right now. So I try to
Speaker 2: share that with people.
Speaker 1: I love that, And you're right, you know. I think
Speaker 1: when you look at a problem that feels so big,
Speaker 1: sometimes the bigness of it can you know, get at
Speaker 1: your worst insecurities. You go, well, what am I going
Speaker 1: to do about this? How's one little person going to
Speaker 1: change this? But I think the neatest thing about living
Speaker 1: in a society like ours, or looking at a problem
Speaker 1: like the climate crisis, is that we can all do something.
Speaker 1: You know, much like you feel so passionate about your
Speaker 1: environment in Washington, I feel the same for the forests
Speaker 1: I grew up near in California. I feel the same about,
Speaker 1: you know, the beautiful Upper Peninsula in Michigan. My best
Speaker 1: friend and I run our business ventures out of there
Speaker 1: because we love the state so much. We want to
Speaker 1: preserve the water and you know, all of the agriculture there.
Speaker 1: And we've got a young guy who we work with
Speaker 1: who started a company there that I think you love,
Speaker 1: called just Air to work on air quality monitoring because
Speaker 1: he was fine these rising incidences of asthma in certain
Speaker 1: populations and said, you know, climate justice is also about
Speaker 1: human justice. And I'm so inspired by what he's doing.
Speaker 1: And he's one of the people that reminds me to
Speaker 1: keep going. So I love that you have all these
Speaker 1: people that remind you to keep going too. It feels
Speaker 1: just feels like we got to be in it together.
Speaker 1: And if you lose a little bit of faith, all
Speaker 1: you have to do is look for somebody who's doing
Speaker 1: something good, and you're reminded that you're capable of doing
Speaker 1: the same.
Speaker 2: He said, some very profound. Each of us has a
Speaker 2: role to player. Each of us could take action on this.
Speaker 2: All of us have capability to take action on this
Speaker 2: in so many different ways, not just through a political sphere,
Speaker 2: in our personal lives as well. What we make of
Speaker 2: personal decisions have an impact as well. By the way
Speaker 2: you mentioned Michigan, I trust that you have called everyone
Speaker 2: you know in Michigan. Oh yeah, uh this week, Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: trust I trust you've done that already.
Speaker 1: Indeed, I've called everyone I know in Michigan, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: i've ever left.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that this air quality too. You said something
Speaker 2: else I think is very important is that this is
Speaker 2: about people, not just polar bears. This is about people.
Speaker 2: This is what we're doing this for humans. We love
Speaker 2: polar bears, we love penguins, and I actually do. I've
Speaker 2: painted paintings of them. But it's about us, not just them.
Speaker 2: It's our lives. It's our kids with asthma, and there's
Speaker 2: an epidemic of asthma right now. And I got on
Speaker 2: this air quality issue about twenty years ago or fifteen
Speaker 2: years ago, when I met a young woman who did
Speaker 2: some research at age fourteen about the correlation of proximity
Speaker 2: to freeways and asthma and found this one to one
Speaker 2: correlation and which has now been confirmed by the epidemiologists
Speaker 2: at the Irish Washington. So yes, it's an air quali.
Speaker 2: It's a breathing issue, right. It's not just getting to
Speaker 2: go skiing, although we care about that, just about going fishing.
Speaker 2: It's about where you can breathe in a school room.
Speaker 2: And right now we have people trying to repeal in
Speaker 2: my state the law we call the Climate Commitment Act,
Speaker 2: which provides funds in part for schools to get air
Speaker 2: filtration systems and heating and air conditioning systems so kids
Speaker 2: can breathe in school because we have these forest fire
Speaker 2: problems now so terrible that kids can't even go outside
Speaker 2: in August. So it's fundamental to our health, human health
Speaker 2: and penguins count two. I love my grandkids.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. When we solve the problems for them,
Speaker 1: we solve the problems for us too. Would you say
Speaker 1: that the Climate Commitment Act because and I asked this
Speaker 1: question because I've heard you talk about it a lot
Speaker 1: and I'm incredibly inspired by it, is that one of
Speaker 1: the things you're most proud of having gotten done over
Speaker 1: the course of your time as governor.
Speaker 2: Yes, because it's the thing that long term will the
Speaker 2: most lasting impact for my state. If you look at
Speaker 2: all the things we work on, We've had a lot
Speaker 2: of things. We've improved our access to college. We have
Speaker 2: the best college financial system in the country of the
Speaker 2: best paid family medical leave we have that's beenimum wage.
Speaker 2: We've got the first long term care plan for folks.
Speaker 2: We just had a much more progressive tax system we've adopted.
Speaker 2: We've had two huge transportation systems. We've made a lot
Speaker 2: of progress over the last twelve years. But the thing
Speaker 2: that one hundred years from now will be the most
Speaker 2: consequential is the work we've done to stop climate change
Speaker 2: from burning down all our for us, melting all of
Speaker 2: our snow, and preventing us from have water to drink. Okay,
Speaker 2: So that will be the most consequential thing long term.
Speaker 2: And we have made significant progress, and I'm proud of
Speaker 2: what our state has done. I do think we have
Speaker 2: at least maybe a tie for the best climate policies
Speaker 2: in the United States. So we are very proud of
Speaker 2: and which are going our jobs as well. So we
Speaker 2: feel good about that, but there's more work to done.
Speaker 2: We're not done. There's going to have to be continued work.
Speaker 2: We've set the foundation, but the governor's after me will
Speaker 2: have more work to do.
Speaker 1: You've just listed such an incredible I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: laundry list of accomplishments. Really, what's led to your decision
Speaker 1: than to not run for a fourth term as governor?
Speaker 1: You've served in so many offices and done such a
Speaker 1: beautiful job. Or are you just feeling like it's time
Speaker 1: to pass the torch?
Speaker 2: Well, I just yeah, there's just a time. And sometimes
Speaker 2: I should have a more trite answer to that question, right,
Speaker 2: Like you know, I got inspiration from some source that
Speaker 2: should be trite. There's no trite answer to it. I
Speaker 2: thought it was time for the state to have a
Speaker 2: chance for different leadership after three terms, and to some
Speaker 2: degree a little bit it was complicated by COVID, where
Speaker 2: I had to exercise extreme levels of executive decision making.
Speaker 2: I thought, particularly with that, that it was important for
Speaker 2: the state to have a chance to have new leadership,
Speaker 2: not just in the Governor's office but in the Attorney
Speaker 2: General's office. Because I have a cascading effect. Right, So
Speaker 2: I opened up I opened up a dozen offices when
Speaker 2: I decided not to run, and I thought that the state,
Speaker 2: that's just the right moment to allow new, younger leadership
Speaker 2: to have a shot. It is not a lack of interest,
Speaker 2: though I intend to be very active working on clean energy.
Speaker 2: What I will be looking for is the best place
Speaker 2: that I can be most effective in developing a clean
Speaker 2: energy economy and fighting climate change. And what that will be,
Speaker 2: I don't know what it'll be, but I intend to be.
Speaker 2: I intend to be full time active in this pursuit
Speaker 2: in some other way.
Speaker 1: I love that, because what you're really talking about is
Speaker 1: making sure that you continue to push for progress in
Speaker 1: whatever way it can best be achieved. And I think
Speaker 1: that requires an energy of service that goes far beyond
Speaker 1: just elected office. It. It really is such a signal
Speaker 1: to me that someone's done really healthy work on themselves
Speaker 1: and their ego to say, hey, like this is how
Speaker 1: I am of the best highest good for my community.
Speaker 1: I feel like you'll continue to be Washington's best grandpa.
Speaker 1: You were talking about your grandkids.
Speaker 2: I think you.
Speaker 1: I think you're the grandpa of the whole state. And
Speaker 1: I can't wait to watch you lead on climate in
Speaker 1: in you know this next iteration.
Speaker 2: As you think about the best grandpa, I just no, no,
Speaker 2: I just have the best grand kids to the best grandmother.
Speaker 2: I will tell you that. So fair point, you've got
Speaker 2: that going for it.
Speaker 1: I love it as as we look out, you know.
Speaker 1: And if there may be a two prong answer to this,
Speaker 1: you know, it might be part one message to the
Speaker 1: vote now that we're less than a week out from
Speaker 1: election day, and part two is a personal answer. But
Speaker 1: I always love to ask guests to leave us with
Speaker 1: this final question, which is, as you look out at
Speaker 1: the landscape of what's ahead, what feels like you're work
Speaker 1: in progress right now?
Speaker 2: You mean for the country or may personally.
Speaker 1: Well, normally it's a personal question. But I know we're
Speaker 1: a week out from an election, So if you want
Speaker 1: to give an election answer and then your personal answer,
Speaker 1: I'll take two.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm very focused right now on the fact that
Speaker 2: someone a terrorist at burnt up one of our drop
Speaker 2: boxes down Washington, right and right now I'm focused on
Speaker 2: finding that culprit and, as the FBI said, neutralizing it.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm focused on. I'm also focused on an
Speaker 2: effort to cure those people. It could be a thousand
Speaker 2: ballots that were burnt up for making sure those voters,
Speaker 2: no matter who they voted for, I make sure their
Speaker 2: vote gets counted. So I'm intensely focused this morning on
Speaker 2: a program to make it as easy as possible for
Speaker 2: those people to get substitute ballots into their hands. Thank you.
Speaker 2: It's a very immediate focus. I just got off a
Speaker 2: call with the FBI an hour ago, and I'll be
Speaker 2: talking to the local auditors and Secretary of State two
Speaker 2: thirty this afternoon to both make sure we shut down
Speaker 2: that threat and provide the appropriate security for the drop
Speaker 2: boxes and help these people get their ballots to be counted.
Speaker 2: So that's my immediate focus. Then we'll go to the
Speaker 2: next crisis.
Speaker 1: I love it. And what about for you just elected office? Aside,
Speaker 1: but maybe as you think about the landscape of your life,
Speaker 1: your family, what you're excited about once we get past
Speaker 1: the election and we come up to the holidays, what's
Speaker 1: on the goals list for you?
Speaker 2: Prudy and I will look for the best that we
Speaker 2: can advance this cause that we've been working on together
Speaker 2: for thirty years. This has been a thirty year effort.
Speaker 2: I started in nineteen ninety two working on climate change. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so we're not going to stop. So near term
Speaker 2: horizon is to figure out where we can do the
Speaker 2: best good, and we'll figure out where that is and
Speaker 2: who that is. I don't know. I haven't really searched
Speaker 2: for that at the moment, but I'll be looking for it.
Speaker 1: It's a good goalpost. I think best and highest good
Speaker 1: is a pretty very to have.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: You go, well, Governor, Thank you so much for taking
Speaker 1: time out of such a busy moment in our history
Speaker 1: and in your state for sure, and coming to talk
Speaker 1: to me and all the rest of these voters. We
Speaker 1: greatly appreciate your time and I look forward to remaining
Speaker 1: in the climate fight with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. We've got some work to do. Let's go
Speaker 2: win it, we do, sir. Good luck, Thank you.
Speaker 1: To you soon.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Oh