Speaker 1: Hey, listeners, I'm just interjecting to let you know this
Speaker 1: episode was recorded a few weeks ago, working with Governor
Speaker 1: Insley around his incredibly busy schedule, and unfortunately, in the
Speaker 1: time between recording and this episode airing, the devastating floods
Speaker 1: have taken place in Texas, and we are just heartbroken
Speaker 1: for everyone in Mystic and everyone affected, and it really
Speaker 1: drives home an unfortunate point. The climate crisis is making
Speaker 1: extreme weather more frequent and more severe, and the climate
Speaker 1: doesn't care where you live, how you voted, or if
Speaker 1: you believe in science. Science is here. We are particularly
Speaker 1: heartbroken knowing that the current administration in the White House
Speaker 1: has slashed funding and aid response from FEMA and other
Speaker 1: organizations that were meant to support victims of the flooding
Speaker 1: and that were meant to warr them in the hours
Speaker 1: before the flood's hit. Slashing the National Weather Service is
Speaker 1: in our mind, unforgivable, and we would just like to
Speaker 1: ask that if you agree or you feel similarly passionate
Speaker 1: about ensuring that people are safe, whether they're your next
Speaker 1: door neighbors or your neighbors a few states away, please
Speaker 1: look up relief efforts for those affected. Please look up
Speaker 1: local organizations wherever you live that are working to defend climate,
Speaker 1: because those are the groups that we need now more
Speaker 1: than ever. And we are keeping everyone affected by this
Speaker 1: flood and the hurricane season to come in all of
Speaker 1: our thoughts here at work in progress. Thank you. Hello
Speaker 1: whips Marty. Do we ever have a wonderful big brain
Speaker 1: here with us today? I am so excited to be
Speaker 1: joined by Jay Insley. He served as the twenty third
Speaker 1: governor of Washington State from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five and has been one of our most effective leaders
Speaker 1: on climate in America. He has proven that bold action
Speaker 1: on climate change is also incredibly successful economic policy. He
Speaker 1: made climate a central focus of his administration and pushed
Speaker 1: for and then implemented incredible clean energy legislation, promoted electric
Speaker 1: vehicle infrastructure, supported aggressive carbon reduction goals, and under his leadership,
Speaker 1: Washington State passed one of the nation's strongest one hundred
Speaker 1: percent clean energy laws, aiming to eliminate coal power and
Speaker 1: transition to carbon free energy by twenty forty five. It
Speaker 1: is so cool to hear him talk about how he
Speaker 1: did it, how he organized folks across the political spectrum
Speaker 1: and what it feels like when he meets with Washingtonians
Speaker 1: who get zero dollar energy bills. Now, I think it's
Speaker 1: probably why he's often called our gold standard for climate platforms,
Speaker 1: and now post his governatorial tenure, he is working with
Speaker 1: an amazing group that I am lucky enough to collaborate
Speaker 1: with him on, called Climate Power. I got to be honest, guys,
Speaker 1: I can feel a little doom and gloom about where
Speaker 1: climate policy is going to go under today's leadership, and
Speaker 1: this conversation with Governor Insley really put me back in
Speaker 1: my hope. He reminded me of what we've accomplished and
Speaker 1: what's to come, and that this fight is absolutely not over.
Speaker 1: And I think that kind of inspiration is something we
Speaker 1: all need right now.
Speaker 2: So let's dive in with Governor Jay Insley.
Speaker 3: Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm well, thank you, Good morning, Well Governor. Normally, when
Speaker 1: I sit down with guests, you know you've got really
Speaker 1: exciting things going on, whether it's work projects or you know,
Speaker 1: your incredible political tenure. I'm actually quite curious. I like
Speaker 1: to go backwards before we really sit in the present,
Speaker 1: and I wonder for you as a public servant and
Speaker 1: an advocate. If you could go back in time and
Speaker 1: encounter yourself at let's say ten, do you think you'd
Speaker 1: see yourself reflected in that boy?
Speaker 3: Not in the least, because I was strong, vigorous, was
Speaker 3: my oyster. I'd never lost. I had not last lost
Speaker 3: a campaign at that moment, and no, I was at ten.
Speaker 3: I fell off my bicycle and broke my leg at
Speaker 3: a very bad break, and really couldn't walk for several months.
Speaker 3: So I started reading, and I remember reading a book.
Speaker 3: I was going to be a nuclear physicist when I
Speaker 3: was ten years of age, and I read a book
Speaker 3: about nuclear energy and it was just fascinated by it. So
Speaker 3: that was my ambition when I was ten, also to
Speaker 3: learn to walk again, which was maybe a formative experience
Speaker 3: because I had to go through several months of procedures
Speaker 3: and it was a difficult time, but maybe an interesting
Speaker 3: one because I started to read. Maybe that's what caused
Speaker 3: my problems to make me go into politics.
Speaker 1: Why do you think you were so passionate about science
Speaker 1: as a young boy.
Speaker 3: Well, my father was a biology teacher. That might have
Speaker 3: something to do with it, and there was some and
Speaker 3: I just remember there was a diagram about how fission worked,
Speaker 3: about the splitting of the atom, and somehow that captured
Speaker 3: my imagination. And I think that the wonderful thing about
Speaker 3: youth is your imagination is untrammeled. It's unconstrained, that society
Speaker 3: has not put any constraints on your imagination yet. So
Speaker 3: last night I was sitting out on my deck out
Speaker 3: here watching the sunset, and I asked my two year
Speaker 3: old grandson, I said, how far away is the sun?
Speaker 3: Is that a long ways away or is it close?
Speaker 3: And he started like reaching out like he could try
Speaker 3: to figure out how far away it was. And then
Speaker 3: then he reached up to the sky and he says,
Speaker 3: I'm going to pull the sky down and make it
Speaker 3: a blanket. And he reached up to the blue sky
Speaker 3: and it's like he's reaching up and he was going
Speaker 3: to make the sky a blanket. You know, and you
Speaker 3: get older, you wouldn't be able to share that imagination
Speaker 3: because people would look at you a little strange. But
Speaker 3: as a child, you're free to rome. And so that's
Speaker 3: a wonderful thing about that part of life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, free to imagine. Really, do you think that your
Speaker 1: time spent reading while healing launched your interest in politics
Speaker 1: or did that come.
Speaker 3: Later, much much later. I really, I've always been interested
Speaker 3: in public policy issues, but I did not see myself
Speaker 3: being involved in politics as an official till my mid
Speaker 3: to upper thirties. And you know, I was really interested
Speaker 3: in my community affairs and kept abreast to what was
Speaker 3: going on in the nation. But the way I got
Speaker 3: involved in politics, that was a small town lawyer raising
Speaker 3: Hay and three Pharoh boys out in the central part
Speaker 3: of Washington State, and we tried to pass a school bond,
Speaker 3: Trudy and I because it failed five times and they
Speaker 3: were going to have to start double shifting our kids.
Speaker 3: We thought that was nuts. So he said, let's go
Speaker 3: build a new high school. And no one else with
Speaker 3: town would try because they failed five times. Wow, Trudy
Speaker 3: and I and another couple took it on. We got
Speaker 3: it passed, and as soon as we passed it, though,
Speaker 3: the chatterheads and the legislature changed the funding formula and
Speaker 3: got our state funding in half. And I got outraged
Speaker 3: about that, went over and started to raise hell An
Speaker 3: Olympia in our capital. And eventually he said, well, if
Speaker 3: I'm going to do this, I might as well be
Speaker 3: in office. So I ran for office one in a
Speaker 3: huge upset, very very republican area against the city mayor
Speaker 3: and had no chance of winning. Was in the legislature
Speaker 3: for two years and went to Congress. So that's my route,
Speaker 3: which was not preordained, predestined, or planned, And here I am.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think that's the best way, though, you know,
Speaker 1: people who see a problem and decide to run toward it.
Speaker 1: When when you want to fix something to ensure a
Speaker 1: better future for you, where kids and other people's kids,
Speaker 1: you know, I think there's a I think there's such
Speaker 1: disdain for our political system because we see so many
Speaker 1: people who get into it for self interest and self enrichment.
Speaker 1: And it's really a relief to be reminded that there
Speaker 1: are folks who do this because they actually want to
Speaker 1: serve the public. So it's nice to hear your story.
Speaker 1: When when you look around the landscape of you know,
Speaker 1: the world you work in. Why do you think younger
Speaker 1: generations seem so politically averse? You know, what do you
Speaker 1: think that is? Is it a is it a disillusionment
Speaker 1: or is it that frustration with some of that kind
Speaker 1: of grift that we see in the political system. Why
Speaker 1: do you think so many young folks are hands off.
Speaker 3: Young. I love young people. I'd like to be one
Speaker 3: actually someday. But I don't think, you know, it's changed.
Speaker 3: I think that you know, when you're nineteen twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: you just you still don't have your feet under you yet.
Speaker 3: You're not connected to a particular community all the time,
Speaker 3: and you just haven't been hit with a mortgage rate interest,
Speaker 3: you know, raise, you haven't been hit by reality to
Speaker 3: some degree in that regard. And there's a maturation project,
Speaker 3: you know, in life. You know, I hate to say it,
Speaker 3: but you do grow into things. And I don't think
Speaker 3: it's I don't I actually don't know the numbers, but
Speaker 3: I'm not sure it's changed dramatically. As far as voting
Speaker 3: behavior for young people, it's always been lesser than people,
Speaker 3: you know, over sixty. That's always been sort of the
Speaker 3: reality of this situation. I will say that the young
Speaker 3: voters that do vote and are active are so incredible,
Speaker 3: well informed and scientifically literate and inspiring to those of
Speaker 3: us who've been around for a few decades. So we
Speaker 3: do everything humanly possible to get young people engaged because
Speaker 3: they're the smartest generation and they have the most to lose, right,
Speaker 3: So you know how many years have I got, I
Speaker 3: don't know, but twenty year old's got several decades. And
Speaker 3: if they lose the planet and a place to live
Speaker 3: in a health system that takes care of them, they
Speaker 3: get a lot more to lose. So we do everything
Speaker 3: we do to encourage them. We do have a higher
Speaker 3: voter participation of young and old in my state because
Speaker 3: we have one of it's not the best voting system,
Speaker 3: because we vote by mail, it's very easy. We have
Speaker 3: same day registration. We make it really easy to vote.
Speaker 3: And it just drives me nuts when I see these
Speaker 3: other states, most of them run by the party that
Speaker 3: I don't belong to, that you know, make people stand
Speaker 3: in line for three hours to vote. It's just nuts.
Speaker 3: So we do everything we can to increase voter participation,
Speaker 3: and we have one of the highest rates in the nation.
Speaker 1: Oh, I just love that. It is such an odd
Speaker 1: thing to watch, you know, one of our two parties
Speaker 1: really want to deny people the right to exercise their
Speaker 1: vote and their voice. And you know, I will say
Speaker 1: one of the things that not to say the two
Speaker 1: parties are the same, but one of the things that
Speaker 1: really frustrates me is that we couldn't get our party
Speaker 1: better in line in the first two years of President
Speaker 1: Biden's term. The fact that we have not reinstated the
Speaker 1: John Lewis Voting Rights Act just makes me crazy.
Speaker 3: Look, I wish we'd solved all our problems where we
Speaker 3: had a majority. But you got to understand, you up
Speaker 3: against the filibuster in the Senate, yep. And that's one
Speaker 3: of the frustrating things that when you're in the minority
Speaker 3: party in either chamber, or even when you're in the
Speaker 3: majority party, excuse me, you have to realize up against
Speaker 3: philibuster to try to pass something like that. So unless
Speaker 3: you're willing to blow up the filibuster. And I'm not
Speaker 3: a fan of the filibuster, if it was me, I
Speaker 3: probably would vote to end it, even though there's downsize
Speaker 3: when here's the minority, obviously, but that prevents a lot
Speaker 3: of progress, and it is you know, that is you know,
Speaker 3: a cleavage between the two parties. So the Democratic Party
Speaker 3: is for the last you know, one hundred and fifty years,
Speaker 3: has stood for increasing participation in our community decision making,
Speaker 3: and the other party not so much. They have willfully
Speaker 3: in many occasions, tried to make it more difficult and
Speaker 3: continue these efforts even today in a variety of ways,
Speaker 3: with all kinds of tests and barriers, and you know,
Speaker 3: requiring you to go produce your birth certificate when you
Speaker 3: simply want to vote, which is a real headache, by
Speaker 3: the way, because a lot of people, like nine to
Speaker 3: fifteen percent people literally can't find their documents on occasions,
Speaker 3: so it's a serious issue. It's very disappointing that both
Speaker 3: parties can't be in favor of broadening the number of
Speaker 3: people participate. To put a mildly, I'm disappointed in them, you.
Speaker 1: And me both, sir. We'll be back in just a
Speaker 1: minute after a few words from our favorite sponsors. It's
Speaker 1: interesting to me when I think about participation in the
Speaker 1: system in general and expanding people's access to weigh in
Speaker 1: on their future. It really makes me think a lot
Speaker 1: about climate And you know, you are one of our
Speaker 1: best leaders on climate change and on you know, bolstering
Speaker 1: our power as a nation to deal with it and
Speaker 1: to take care of our people. How did you come
Speaker 1: to really focus on climate as a core issue for
Speaker 1: yourself and what do you wish people better understood about it?
Speaker 3: In the first place, Well, I think there's something deep
Speaker 3: like this. I'll try to give you a succinct answer
Speaker 3: of a complex problem, but basically, I really believe that
Speaker 3: your highest duty as a person is to those who
Speaker 3: are going to come behind you, our children, our grandchildren,
Speaker 3: our nieces, our nephews, our neighbors' kids. I think that's
Speaker 3: our highest duty because keeping this chain, of this beautiful
Speaker 3: chain of humanity going in a healthy way and giving
Speaker 3: your kids what you've enjoyed is our highest duty. There's
Speaker 3: a lot of other duties in life that you know
Speaker 3: everybody'd want to ask your car in a longer vacation,
Speaker 3: but that's in my book, in my value system, that's
Speaker 3: the number one duty of any person in any realm,
Speaker 3: no matter what you're doing. So it kind of stems
Speaker 3: from that. And I have six grandchildren and it is
Speaker 3: my deep, deep, purple passionate desire for them to have
Speaker 3: what I've had, which is clean water, to be able
Speaker 3: to drink and to swim in snow in the mountains,
Speaker 3: to ski on air, to breathe it's not contaminated with
Speaker 3: forest fire and smoke. And I want desperately, if I
Speaker 3: can use that word, to give my grandchildren those gifts,
Speaker 3: and they seem simple because I've always had them. But
Speaker 3: they're not going to have those gifts of a blessed
Speaker 3: and healthy life unless people of my age act to
Speaker 3: build a clean energy economy. And this is a very
Speaker 3: optimistic moment. I know that sounds very strange to say,
Speaker 3: given what the Republicans are trying to do, but we
Speaker 3: have such capability right now to do this, to use
Speaker 3: our heads. Solar and wind energy is now cheaper than
Speaker 3: coal power electricity about ninety four percent of the United States.
Speaker 3: We're building hundreds of thousands of jobs with clean energy jobs.
Speaker 3: If we just use our heads in common sense, we
Speaker 3: can tame this beast and help our economy. So it's
Speaker 3: both a moment to think of our grandchildren and a
Speaker 3: moment to think of the economic benefits of clean energy
Speaker 3: and to be frankly outraged at what the Republicans want
Speaker 3: to do, which is to slow down this emerging rocket
Speaker 3: that's taken off in clean energy. And it's just so
Speaker 3: maddening as we speak that the Republicans are fashioning a
Speaker 3: bill that will you know, have already cost maybe ninety
Speaker 3: thousand jobs across the United States. I look at North Carolina.
Speaker 3: You know, Senator Tillis has a vote on this, and
Speaker 3: this bill is drafted, would cost something like forty five
Speaker 3: thousand jobs in North Carolina over the next several decades. Wow,
Speaker 3: it's billions of dollars of investment. And here's a kicker,
Speaker 3: I think there's actually been an assessment of this could
Speaker 3: result in utility bills going up three hundred dollars a
Speaker 3: month for the people in Carolina because they no longer
Speaker 3: will have access to the cheapest source of electricity, which
Speaker 3: is electricity generated by renewable sources. So when they, out
Speaker 3: of ideology do this, it's really quite maddening given the
Speaker 3: pace of technology that is now available to us. So
Speaker 3: it's a good moment for voices to be heard to
Speaker 3: stand up for cheap energy, cheap electricity, thousands of jobs
Speaker 3: and bonus, maybe our grandkids will have a place to
Speaker 3: live and breathe because the issue.
Speaker 1: As well, well, that's just it. You know, when I
Speaker 1: think about the cost of foregoing in our environment. You know,
Speaker 1: dirty air, poisoned water, doesn't care how you voted, it's
Speaker 1: going to affect all of us. And so it's certainly
Speaker 1: an environmental issue. It's also a moral issue, it's a
Speaker 1: human safety issue. And then, as you said, a financial one.
Speaker 1: You know, to see that since we started really investing
Speaker 1: in clean energy. You know, there's a statistic I read
Speaker 1: recently that says three and a half million Americans have
Speaker 1: saved more than eight billion dollars thanks to energy efficient
Speaker 1: upgrades across the country and that if they continue, that
Speaker 1: savings will increase to thirty eight billion dollars by twenty thirty.
Speaker 1: So when you say that this bill, you know, this
Speaker 1: this reconciliation plan that they want to push through, this
Speaker 1: big awful bill, will destroy these things, I just think, well,
Speaker 1: who would want to set thirty eight billion dollars on fire? Like,
Speaker 1: imagine what we could do with that money for you know,
Speaker 1: upgrades and infrastructure and kids. It's like, the the insanity
Speaker 1: of having a dirt to your world and wasting money
Speaker 1: just feels so ridiculous to me. So why do you
Speaker 1: think they've worked so hard to make environmental issues, clean energy,
Speaker 1: the literal evolution of an innovation in technology seem like
Speaker 1: it's a partisan thing instead of just what we should
Speaker 1: be doing as a global power.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a very difficult question as to why people
Speaker 3: who are literate could shut their eyes to both the
Speaker 3: obvious threat and the obvious benefits of clean energy. It's
Speaker 3: very difficult, but I'll give it my best shot to
Speaker 3: see where this comes from. Number One, you ask who
Speaker 3: these people are. These are people who are behold into
Speaker 3: the fossil fuel industries. In the fossil fuel industries are
Speaker 3: the most powerful corporations in world history. They're much more
Speaker 3: powerful than the mediciese during the Italian period. So they're
Speaker 3: answering to their their bosses, if you will, Who are
Speaker 3: the people with the billions of dollars in an old,
Speaker 3: unfortunately dirty industry that they are answering to. Those are
Speaker 3: the people telling them how to vote. So that's number one.
Speaker 3: Number two, they've got a cult going on right now
Speaker 3: where they've got a guy in the White House that
Speaker 3: somehow has a phobia about wind turbines. He says they
Speaker 3: cause cancer, but we know they don't cause cancer, they
Speaker 3: cause jobs, And he somehow he didn't want to see
Speaker 3: a wind turbine within sight of his golf course and
Speaker 3: decided he wanted to destroy this entire industry. It's nuts.
Speaker 3: But number three, there is a deeper reason. If I
Speaker 3: can and it requires a little more thought to think about.
Speaker 3: It's fear. Fear is very powerful, and in their case,
Speaker 3: they are afraid that we can't solve this problem. They're
Speaker 3: afraid that we can't have a modern lifestyle by addressing
Speaker 3: this problem, and so they shut their eyes. It. It's
Speaker 3: like they want to put the monster in the in
Speaker 3: the closet, you know. They get the monster in the closet.
Speaker 3: They don't want to let it out because they're afraid
Speaker 3: that will lose all of the modern benefits we have
Speaker 3: of ev warmth in our house and food on the table,
Speaker 3: and electronics at our disposal. And they don't see a
Speaker 3: vision that can allow us to live that life. I do,
Speaker 3: and so many thousands and millions, and the majority of
Speaker 3: Americans do because we're now experiencing it and the joy
Speaker 3: of this. It's the joy of clean energy. I remember
Speaker 3: talking to this woman. We got solar panels for a house.
Speaker 3: We have a thing called the Climate Commitment Act Washington State,
Speaker 3: and it generates money so we can help Washingtonians get
Speaker 3: access to clean energy. So she lives in top and
Speaker 3: it she gets up at three o'clock every morning, goes
Speaker 3: picks apples. Top finished Washington, and I met she and
Speaker 3: her daughter right their front yard looking up at her
Speaker 3: solar panels, and she said, I am the best day
Speaker 3: of my month is the day I get my utility
Speaker 3: bills because it's zero, says I. Just it's like a
Speaker 3: gift every month. So we hear these stories of people
Speaker 3: getting heat pumps who've lowered their costs and have much more,
Speaker 3: you know, comfortable homes. And by the way, now heat
Speaker 3: pump now gives you air conditioning too, and we now
Speaker 3: need that in Seattle. We never needed air conditioning until now,
Speaker 3: but now the heat domes are hitting us right and
Speaker 3: it helps on air quality in so many ways. And
Speaker 3: we've had a problem with air quality because of forest fires.
Speaker 3: By the way, you mentioned financial impact on this. One
Speaker 3: of the great things people don't think about are the
Speaker 3: health costs associated with this. We have an epidemic of asthma.
Speaker 3: We have kids with neighbors that they don't know anybody
Speaker 3: doesn't have asthma, and it's getting worse because of forest
Speaker 3: fire smoke and also because of the particular matter that
Speaker 3: comes from burning fossil fuels. So the financial cost is
Speaker 3: not just losing jobs. It's not just losing industries. It's
Speaker 3: losing your health and the health costs have gone up
Speaker 3: dramatically because of that. So there's so many ways this
Speaker 3: makes sense. I've given you my best explanation as to
Speaker 3: why this is. And it's very unique to America. You know,
Speaker 3: you go to other continents. This is not a debate
Speaker 3: between the liberal and conservative parties. You know, every country
Speaker 3: has a liberal and conservative party, and there's unanimity that
Speaker 3: we got to do something about this. And the rest
Speaker 3: of the world. It's a very strange thing in the
Speaker 3: United States and most bizarre because we're the most technologically
Speaker 3: adept people in the world. You know, we're the ones
Speaker 3: that went to the moon. Yeah, and so why this
Speaker 3: has infected us is a little strange. But we need
Speaker 3: to do something about it, which is get out there
Speaker 3: and vote in March.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir. And you know what's also not lost on me.
Speaker 1: There's the economic cost. There's obviously that the health costs.
Speaker 1: There's also a cost to our national security, which you
Speaker 1: were just referencing. You know, the United States is really
Speaker 1: a leader on science and technology, and as we see
Speaker 1: these threats to you know, our research institutions, funding grants,
Speaker 1: all of these things It's not lost on me that
Speaker 1: if we, you know, knock the wheels off the bus
Speaker 1: of progress on environmental science, we're given it to other
Speaker 1: countries like we will forfeit our future as technologists to
Speaker 1: countries like China. And it's really important for us to
Speaker 1: continue to lead on this from a democracy.
Speaker 3: So this is this is where we shine. We do
Speaker 3: two things really well, at least till now in America.
Speaker 3: What is democracy, which we gave to the world in
Speaker 3: the modern world, and to our scientific and innovative, entrepreneurial genius.
Speaker 3: And both of there in an assault right now. We
Speaker 3: know about the assaults on democracy, but the assault on science,
Speaker 3: the assault on innovation, the assault on creativity based on technology.
Speaker 3: You know, you're in a creative business, right and congratulations
Speaker 3: on your career, But science is a creative business as well,
Speaker 3: and by choking that creativity, this is really the economic
Speaker 3: powerhouse of the United States. The economic growth of the
Speaker 3: United States starts in laboratories, probably most, if not many,
Speaker 3: if not most, in university laboratories. That's where these ideas
Speaker 3: come from, where they start, that's where these startups come
Speaker 3: out of. And right now that's choked off for reasons
Speaker 3: that really are difficult to understand because those researchers now
Speaker 3: are not coming to do research and projects. They are
Speaker 3: going to Germany and England and China, and that's where
Speaker 3: that research is going to go. Because these researchers, they
Speaker 3: have a passion for doing it. They're going to find
Speaker 3: a place to do it, and now we're telling them
Speaker 3: they can't do it, and it's so insidious. One old story.
Speaker 3: So we were when we marched last weekend. We had
Speaker 3: a unique way of doing it. We did it on
Speaker 3: our ferryboat. So on the ferry from Bambridge Island to Seattle.
Speaker 3: We had two thousand people walking around the ferryboat deck
Speaker 3: in protests. And I met a woman named Ella and
Speaker 3: she is a freshman at Harvard. She is the pole
Speaker 3: vault champion in the Ivy League and she's also a
Speaker 3: medical device researcher at age like eighteen or nineteen, and
Speaker 3: she's doing research on using mechanical energy instead of electrical
Speaker 3: energy to power little devices that are put in your
Speaker 3: body as a simpler way to do it. And she
Speaker 3: has a research grant, which is incredible, the eighteen nineteen
Speaker 3: year old person thinking about medical devices. Yeah wow. And
Speaker 3: her Grant just got canceled. Can't do it this summer.
Speaker 3: She was going to be trying to invent something that
Speaker 3: can help people of my age get through the aging process,
Speaker 3: and they canceled her. And that is so heartbreaking to
Speaker 3: see the ambition in her eyes quashed. Now she's resilient,
Speaker 3: she's going to go on. So I told her, look,
Speaker 3: this may delay your work, but it's not going to
Speaker 3: stop it. So go pull vault this summer and we'll
Speaker 3: be back when Democrats get in charge of the House
Speaker 3: of Representatives at least, so we're hoping that'll happen. By
Speaker 3: the way, there's litigation on all of this too. Yes,
Speaker 3: we're hopeful. We've got you know, a dozen injunctions already
Speaker 3: against Trump's trying to stop this progress. So all is
Speaker 3: not lost here. So we've still got hope.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in just a minute. But here's a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors. Not that I'm any fan of
Speaker 1: the person I'm about to mention, but even Elon Musk
Speaker 1: is warning that America will not win the technology race
Speaker 1: without clean energy production. We've got to have it. There's
Speaker 1: no amount of oil drilling that'll be able to fulfill
Speaker 1: our needs. There's no way to increase production to those levels,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't make any sense, as we've said, because
Speaker 1: it's more expensive.
Speaker 3: Well listen, maybe Elong got one right recently, and that's
Speaker 3: the one that choking off technological innovation is crazy in
Speaker 3: the United States of America. And by the way, his
Speaker 3: story is instructive too, because it also shows how governmental
Speaker 3: investment early in the arc of progress in these technologies
Speaker 3: is extremely important. His company got to start in part
Speaker 3: because of some federal assistance that helped that company get going.
Speaker 3: That makes sense because while you're competing with these incumbent
Speaker 3: old technologies, getting a little start, a little seed money
Speaker 3: really really helps. And it does so well. I started
Speaker 3: a thing called the Clean Tech Center or a testbed
Speaker 3: facility at the University of Washington several years ago and
Speaker 3: met these two young guys that had invented a way
Speaker 3: to increase the efficiency of a solar cell by kind
Speaker 3: of concentrating the light, changing the frequency, counturing some of
Speaker 3: the frequencies of light. That was like four years ago. Well,
Speaker 3: now they've spun off their company, they've been acquired by
Speaker 3: somebody else, And it started with this little seed money
Speaker 3: from the university, from the State of Washington to start
Speaker 3: this clean tech lab.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's really important to frame things
Speaker 1: this way for people to understand, you know, how large
Speaker 1: the sphere of effect for these industries really is and
Speaker 1: that it affects you know, science, tech, budget, health, everything.
Speaker 1: I think it can be a little hard to wrap
Speaker 1: your head around it because it's such an enormous part
Speaker 1: of our world. And one of the things I think,
Speaker 1: and you can tell me if I'm correct here, one
Speaker 1: of the things I think I'm seeing is, especially with
Speaker 1: the extreme weather and the way things are changing, you know,
Speaker 1: since Trump got back into office, I do feel like
Speaker 1: I'm seeing people realize, you know, this is this is bad.
Speaker 1: The fact that Noah is changing, that he wants to
Speaker 1: absolutely you know, cut it down to basically be completely inefficient.
Speaker 1: That signals to Americans that the president is essentially saying
Speaker 1: you're on your own. You know. Disaster warnings have not
Speaker 1: gone out on days they needed to since he took office,
Speaker 1: and people have died. Can you kind of walk us
Speaker 1: through a bit what Noah and the National Weather Service
Speaker 1: do and why they are so important to folks across
Speaker 1: the country.
Speaker 3: I can, and I wish I wasn't so experienced at this,
Speaker 3: but you know, I was governor for twelve years for
Speaker 3: the most beautiful state in the country, and the most
Speaker 3: beautiful country and the planet, most beautiful planet in the
Speaker 3: Solar system, but it was injured so multiply by climate
Speaker 3: related disasters. And I know so many people whose lives
Speaker 3: have been interrupted and sometimes lost because of these climate
Speaker 3: related disasters. And it's very personal with me because I've
Speaker 3: seen what that trauma does when your house has been
Speaker 3: burned down. I remember this couple in WINACTI standing just
Speaker 3: in literally the ashes of their house, hugging each other,
Speaker 3: just trying to support each other. It's such trauma when
Speaker 3: you lose your house or your life. We had two
Speaker 3: whole towns burned down in forest fires, and of course
Speaker 3: our forest fires have almost doubled in the last several
Speaker 3: decades because of heat. Because of heat and drought and dryness,
Speaker 3: these forests are just tenders waiting to explode now across
Speaker 3: the Western United States. There's no force on nature that
Speaker 3: can really totally solved. We can manage our forests, we're
Speaker 3: doing that, but you can't totally solve the problem when
Speaker 3: they're so dry. So I've seen this personal and when
Speaker 3: I've seen what Trump did, which was so callously indifferent,
Speaker 3: it really does make my blood boil. This town called
Speaker 3: mal didn't burned down several years ago in eastern Washington.
Speaker 3: The whole town burned down. In fact, the fire engine
Speaker 3: burned down in the fire station. The fire is moving
Speaker 3: so quickly, and we asked, you know, the federal government
Speaker 3: for help, and Trump says, no, I'm not going to help.
Speaker 3: And when the Republican congresswoman said, why won't you help?
Speaker 3: You know, this is a Republican district, and he said,
Speaker 3: because I don't you know, I don't like the governor.
Speaker 3: You know, he's not subservient to me, won't kiss my
Speaker 3: ring often enough. So he refused assistance to those families
Speaker 3: whose homes were in ashes, whose lives were severely compromised.
Speaker 3: And because the whole town, when you have the whole
Speaker 3: town burned down, you just don't have something to go
Speaker 3: back to. There's no city hall, there's no fire station,
Speaker 3: there's no medical clinic. And so that is so devastating
Speaker 3: to a community. And to me, how I look at
Speaker 3: this problem, when I think about that couple standing in
Speaker 3: the ruins of their home, pleading with the president who
Speaker 3: was hired to help them turn his back on them. Literally,
Speaker 3: he's turning his back on these people their most desperate
Speaker 3: moment where he said that we're not going to help
Speaker 3: these people. I can't think of a more scandalous, abusive
Speaker 3: thing for a public official to do. Look, we're not
Speaker 3: asking to go to the moon or cure cancer by
Speaker 3: next Monday. We're simply asking him to help these people
Speaker 3: who are in stress. And it's fires here, but it's
Speaker 3: floods too. I remember talking to another family. They got
Speaker 3: flooded out in the northern part to the state of Washington,
Speaker 3: and they took about a year to rebuild their home.
Speaker 3: They had a party celebrating rebuilding their home, and a
Speaker 3: week later, another flood came through and wiped out their
Speaker 3: home again. And to turn your back on these people
Speaker 3: is just such an outrage, and we need to do
Speaker 3: something about it, which clearly is to vote and go
Speaker 3: help people that can get into office to stop this madness.
Speaker 3: Now he talks about it as waste, fraud, and abuse.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what, when you see a family
Speaker 3: standing in those ashes and they ask you for a
Speaker 3: little bit of food to eat for a few weeks
Speaker 3: and a little bit of rental assistance so they can
Speaker 3: go to apartment for a few weeks while to figure
Speaker 3: out where're going to be, and maybe some assistance with
Speaker 3: jobs because you've lost your jobs because the economy has
Speaker 3: been destroyed in your local community. That ain't waste, fraud
Speaker 3: and abuse. That's human compassion. It's responsibility of what we
Speaker 3: hire the federal government to do. So I'm hopeful this
Speaker 3: will turn this around.
Speaker 1: I sure hope so too. I think it's really important
Speaker 1: to remind people that programs like this, that's your ROI
Speaker 1: for your investment in this country, for your being a citizen,
Speaker 1: for your paying taxes and building an economy. You know,
Speaker 1: if you don't believe in social safety nets, then go
Speaker 1: live somewhere else, go live off the grid, start your
Speaker 1: own country and be one of one.
Speaker 3: And we're all at risk here too, no matter where
Speaker 3: you live, everybody's at risk from climate related disasters. They're
Speaker 3: so omnipresent, and they're almost every week, and it hits
Speaker 3: all of us Democrats and Democrat Republicans alike. In fact,
Speaker 3: that little talent I told you about Malden, Washington, when
Speaker 3: I went back, you know, they voted for Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: like by seventy percent. These are communities who are wildly
Speaker 3: supportive of him, and then he turns his back on him.
Speaker 3: So and unfortunately, this is something we've got to wrap
Speaker 3: our heads around. This is going to get worse before
Speaker 3: it gets better. The frequency of fires, a frequency of floods,
Speaker 3: the frequency of extreme weather events, just rainstorms. We've had
Speaker 3: rainstorms that destroyed Mountain International Park several years ago. You know,
Speaker 3: it doesn't dribble that we're now having these downpourds. This
Speaker 3: is going to increase in the near term because we
Speaker 3: didn't start this effort twenty years ago like we should have.
Speaker 3: So FEMA and the federal government is going to be
Speaker 3: even more important. And it's important that the federal government
Speaker 3: get involved because when you have a local community that's hurt,
Speaker 3: you need to get these assets from multiple states helping out.
Speaker 3: And I've seen this people come from and bless the
Speaker 3: Red Cross, who has help, but they can't carry the
Speaker 3: whole ball here, No to help people with this.
Speaker 1: Assistance well, and I think that's that's something people need
Speaker 1: to remember, is that you know, FEMA exists so that
Speaker 1: we can take care of each other. And so to
Speaker 1: watch the President's suh, you know, thirty percent of the
Speaker 1: staff and threaten to eliminate the agency altogether and derail
Speaker 1: our hurricane preparation. And you know, have the head of
Speaker 1: Noah that he appointed say he didn't even know there
Speaker 1: was a hurricane season. I spent ten years in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I know a lot about hurricane season, and it was
Speaker 1: really painful for me, despite the fact that I don't
Speaker 1: live there anymore, to watch the President deny aid to
Speaker 1: the folks who were affected by Hurricane Helene in that state.
Speaker 1: It was hard to watch them deny aid to the
Speaker 1: tornado survivors in Arkansas. And as you said, a lot
Speaker 1: of those folks are his voters. And the whole point
Speaker 1: I believe in being a leader is to be a
Speaker 1: leader for everyone. And the bottom line is here, and
Speaker 1: you mentioned this earlier. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people who make a lot of money on an old system.
Speaker 1: And while Trump is currently turbo charging the climate crisis
Speaker 1: to increased profits for all his oil and gas buddies, Americans,
Speaker 1: you know, red states and blue are paying the price.
Speaker 1: And so I think the first step is this moment, right,
Speaker 1: it's the informed conversation it's making sure people have the facts.
Speaker 1: And then, as you said, it's organizing, and it's getting
Speaker 1: out and voting and making sure that all of us
Speaker 1: are able to say, hey, this isn't working, This isn't
Speaker 1: working for anybody, so we've got to do something differently.
Speaker 1: I know that can be hard, probably for some of
Speaker 1: the folks at home, because you know, we've got a
Speaker 1: year and a half till the midterms. It's scary to
Speaker 1: think that we have to keep fighting before we might
Speaker 1: see a shift. So to try to inject a little
Speaker 1: hope here, I'm curious, as you are an expert in
Speaker 1: the space, what you think are some of the most
Speaker 1: promising things coming down the pipeline in terms of clean
Speaker 1: energy technologies and the job creation that comes out of
Speaker 1: those innovative spaces.
Speaker 3: Well, first off, I know this sounds nuts. We're at
Speaker 3: the moment, we're at the trough of the wave. We've
Speaker 3: got our climate DENI and President He's trying to creator
Speaker 3: all the federal assistance we're getting. But I am super
Speaker 3: optimistic or ability to solve this problem. And the reason
Speaker 3: is as I'm surrounded by people in my state who
Speaker 3: have emerging technologies that can solve this problem if we
Speaker 3: simply allow them a little bit of room to run.
Speaker 3: Just give you real quick rundown some of the things
Speaker 3: going on in my state. So my state, there are
Speaker 3: two companies, Celan Group fourteen. They've invented a new way
Speaker 3: to use a silicon anode battery that can increase the
Speaker 3: range of your car twenty or thirty percent and charge
Speaker 3: it much more quickly. They have manufacturing plants now under construction.
Speaker 3: These are real companies making real products that can have
Speaker 3: a quantum leap forward in the range of your electric car.
Speaker 3: Right around the corner, literally like a mile from those
Speaker 3: two companies is a company called twelve that's making jet
Speaker 3: fuel out of carbon dioxide and water with no waste products,
Speaker 3: so that when you find your jet there's no you
Speaker 3: don't have a carbon footprint. If you will, you're using
Speaker 3: carbon free fuel. And they're building their manufacturing plant. Right
Speaker 3: up the river. About oh twenty miles from them, is
Speaker 3: a company's going to build the first fusion energy plant
Speaker 3: in the United States, a fifty megawatt production plant using fusion,
Speaker 3: not fission. This is not fission that we know as
Speaker 3: the old nuclear power. This is a process of fusing
Speaker 3: atoms rather than splitting them. Goes back to that book
Speaker 3: I read when I was ten that actually they may
Speaker 3: begin construction on in the next twelve months. Wow, you've
Speaker 3: got companies that are improving the performance of solar energy.
Speaker 3: We have the first marine battery manufacturing plant in Bellingham, Washington,
Speaker 3: and we're going to be building electric ferries. So now
Speaker 3: you won't be breathing in that smoke coming out of
Speaker 3: a smokestack of your fairies anymore. They're all electric and
Speaker 3: I've ridden them on them in Norway. They work. I've
Speaker 3: seen the biggest one in the world is now in Uruguay.
Speaker 3: So the wind turbine industry is continuing to be more
Speaker 3: productive building solar like crazy. So everywhere I turn around
Speaker 3: there's an entrepreneur and skilled working people building news services
Speaker 3: and products that contain this piece and reduces our cost
Speaker 3: of electricity. I mean, think about this. What a blessing
Speaker 3: to have infinite energy fallen on our shoulders that we
Speaker 3: can turn into electricity to run whatever we want to
Speaker 3: run with no pollution. We don't have to dig a
Speaker 3: hole in the ground. It falls. It's delivered free from
Speaker 3: nine million miles away from the sun and it falls
Speaker 3: right on us. I mean, this is a real blessing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and now to see the continued improvement of those things
Speaker 3: is thrilling to me. But we want to accelerate the
Speaker 3: pace of that development, not retarded, and we can do
Speaker 3: that if we just don't go backwards in some of
Speaker 3: these policies.
Speaker 1: I mean, that does feel really exciting. And now a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors who make this show possible. When
Speaker 1: you think about, for example, you know, you talk about
Speaker 1: these technologies, my brain starts to run wild thinking about
Speaker 1: what it would be like if suddenly all these airplanes
Speaker 1: flying around the planet every day had no carbon footprint,
Speaker 1: if every water vessel you know, didn't need to use
Speaker 1: gas fuel. It makes me think about the early days
Speaker 1: when COVID first began and granted terrifying time, but when
Speaker 1: everything really shut down and we started to see how
Speaker 1: quickly the planet could rebound if a lot of our
Speaker 1: pollutants ceased to be pumped into our air every day.
Speaker 1: What do you think or have you heard any of
Speaker 1: these scientists talk about what sort of healing we would
Speaker 1: see for the planet if entire industries did transform like this.
Speaker 1: Are they modeling any of that yet.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that first off, the planet does feal
Speaker 3: quite quickly, and it astounds me how fast an ecosystem
Speaker 3: can't get restored. We had one of the largest dam
Speaker 3: removal projects, the Law Dam. It was really of no
Speaker 3: use anymore to anyone. It was just obsolete. And the
Speaker 3: Ola River and the Olympic National Park and it used
Speaker 3: to have this you know, prodigious salmon run and it
Speaker 3: was removed. It was really joyous occasion when that happened,
Speaker 3: and just within you know, months, salmon were coming back
Speaker 3: on that river. It's really astounding to see how salmon
Speaker 3: will recover. A little Piper's Creek where I grew up
Speaker 3: in the north side of in a suburban area of Seattle,
Speaker 3: which didn't have any salmon when I you know, at
Speaker 3: least when I was a teenager, and we worked to
Speaker 3: restore the community. It was really community led effort, little
Speaker 3: help in the state, I think. To restore the habitat,
Speaker 3: you know, you just make it so it spreads out,
Speaker 3: doesn't run so fast, you put woody debris in it.
Speaker 3: Now you got this prodigious salmon run coming back, and
Speaker 3: the kids go back and so it's a huge community celebration.
Speaker 3: When you see that life really be restored. So we
Speaker 3: know that that things do come back. But there are
Speaker 3: some difficult realities that we have to face that auto
Speaker 3: not make us afraid of progress, but to inspire more
Speaker 3: rapid progress. And there are some systemic problems that we
Speaker 3: have that are going to be devilius for quite some time,
Speaker 3: principally water temperature. So our water temperature has increased so
Speaker 3: much in the state of Washington that salmon literally can't
Speaker 3: get up some of our rivers. They can't survive. So
Speaker 3: we had a really great dam and run go up
Speaker 3: to Columbia River, hundreds of miles up the Clembia River,
Speaker 3: but stopped when they got to the mouth of the
Speaker 3: in Okanahan County because water is too hot. It couldn't
Speaker 3: keep going to spawn. Actually we got lucky they finally
Speaker 3: got up there because we got a break in the weather.
Speaker 3: But this water temperature is your issue, is one that
Speaker 3: is difficult. That's why we need to double our efforts
Speaker 3: to improve habitat, for instance, to allow mother nature to
Speaker 3: do everything so that she can do. And we want
Speaker 3: to get back to work and give her a hand.
Speaker 1: We sure do, and you know it is beautiful to
Speaker 1: watch it. I got to go and visit some of
Speaker 1: the scientists working at Vermeo in New Mexico a few
Speaker 1: years ago, and just seeing the restoration of you know,
Speaker 1: the cutthroat trout and the bison there. It's absolutely incredible
Speaker 1: to watch ecology heal. And it makes me think a
Speaker 1: lot about your legacy. You know, during your time as
Speaker 1: governor Washington, with your leadership past one of the strongest
Speaker 1: clean energy laws in the country, so you know this
Speaker 1: stuff is possible. What lessons did you learn about what
Speaker 1: it actually takes to rally folks to get ambitious climate
Speaker 1: policy passed.
Speaker 3: Well, if I can share it, thank you for the
Speaker 3: kudos of our state, because our policies are the best
Speaker 3: in the nation. And that's why. It's one of the
Speaker 3: reasons we had such economic success, because we're driving all
Speaker 3: these new companies to come here and grow, and it's
Speaker 3: one of the reasons we have such a dynamic economy.
Speaker 3: I'll mention several things. One perseverance, Just say, look, you
Speaker 3: butt your head against a brick wall for years and
Speaker 3: years and years, and then you finally break through it.
Speaker 3: So when I became governor in twenty thirteen, we had
Speaker 3: a Republican Senate and they refused to assist in any
Speaker 3: way to deal with anything and climate. That was very
Speaker 3: frustrating to me. You know, I wanted to have a
Speaker 3: bipartisan effort, so I started a bipartisan commission with Republican
Speaker 3: senators on it, but they basically just refused to participate.
Speaker 3: So then we finally got a Democratic majority in our legislature,
Speaker 3: but I still had a couple of kind of folks
Speaker 3: that hadn't got the memo, even on the Democratic side,
Speaker 3: So I had to work for several years to get
Speaker 3: those last two votes, and there were some changes in
Speaker 3: the legislature. And what I found is frequently it is
Speaker 3: much easier to change the people sitting in the seats
Speaker 3: than to change their minds. So we had some changes
Speaker 3: and who's sitting in the seats, And on year six
Speaker 3: or seven of my governor's term, we finally got the
Speaker 3: capstone of our multiple faceted effort, which is a capin
Speaker 3: invest system which generates three billion dollars by any m
Speaker 3: that we then turn around and get people with heat
Speaker 3: pumps and electric school buses and air filtration systems and
Speaker 3: everything else. Now we've done other things. We had one
Speaker 3: hundred percent clean energy grid requirement. We have the best
Speaker 3: building efficiency standards in the United States. We don't waste energy.
Speaker 3: We have a low carbon fuel standard which basically gives
Speaker 3: people cleaner fuels in multiple ways. We have a Climate
Speaker 3: Core to teach kids the science of climate change. So
Speaker 3: we've done a lot, but the big most effective tool
Speaker 3: is this cap and invest system, and that came in
Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen, in year six or seven that we
Speaker 3: then now have impact. And here's the really cherry on
Speaker 3: the top, the fossil fuel. You know, billionaires didn't like that,
Speaker 3: so they came in and tried to repeal this law,
Speaker 3: and they put it on the ballot and we had
Speaker 3: a knockdown, drag out fight, and the wise citizens of
Speaker 3: the state of Washington defeated them sixty two to thirty eight.
Speaker 3: I mean, that is the biggest landslide washing state history.
Speaker 3: Because Washingtonians understood the economic benefits, the job benefits, the
Speaker 3: health benefits, and it wasn't even necessary to talk about
Speaker 3: rising sea levels alike, because they understood the first order
Speaker 3: of benefits that if you got a heat pump, if
Speaker 3: you get solar and wind, and it's cheaper if your
Speaker 3: kids don't have to breathe forest fire smoke. Our kids
Speaker 3: had to couldn't go outside for days at a time
Speaker 3: two summers ago because of forest fire smoke. So people
Speaker 3: understood the first order of magnitude and funally gave us
Speaker 3: a blue Riven seal of approval. I think that you
Speaker 3: give confidence to politicians going forward, looking at the experience
Speaker 3: in Washington State. We bring companies here instead of them
Speaker 3: going somewhere else because we have this entrepreneurial culture exactly.
Speaker 3: We invest in them and then people support it. So
Speaker 3: people said this is not a winner politically, they're just
Speaker 3: dead wrong. I've seen it firstand first off, I got
Speaker 3: elected governor running on this. Then we won sixty two
Speaker 3: thirty eight. Going away, this is a winning issue if
Speaker 3: it's properly framed and you talk about it in the
Speaker 3: right way.
Speaker 1: Well, it turns out if you tell people the truth
Speaker 1: that helps. It helps. So, now that you are out
Speaker 1: of office for the last several months, and obviously I
Speaker 1: know you're spending a lot of time with your grandkids
Speaker 1: and you're still so incredibly involved, when you look forward,
Speaker 1: what feels like your area of most excited focus, what
Speaker 1: feels like your work in progress for what comes next.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm still engaged in this fight and in a
Speaker 3: variety of ways. I'm working with a group called Climate Power.
Speaker 3: Climate Power has been in a very effective group to
Speaker 3: help communicate the truth. As you said, just you know
Speaker 3: the truth, use the truth. It's so simple, as Mark
Speaker 3: Twain said, so easy. So I'm working with them on
Speaker 3: communication to let people know about the power of clean
Speaker 3: energy across the country and multiple forums. I'm working on
Speaker 3: an effort to help people who have losses due to
Speaker 3: forest fires have some system to help them. So I'm
Speaker 3: quite active. I'm active in trying to raise my voice
Speaker 3: on ferryboats, marching with people and letting them to know
Speaker 3: how important that is to help people on the electoral
Speaker 3: cycle as well. So I'm quite engaged in this effort,
Speaker 3: and I am as cited. I know it's easy to
Speaker 3: kind of get down in the situation and we're in,
Speaker 3: but I just believe we're going to succeed in this.
Speaker 3: I don't believe humans ultimately will be the cause of
Speaker 3: their own destruction. I don't believe that. I believe that
Speaker 3: we will rescue ourselves. It's been delayed by this electoral cycle,
Speaker 3: but we've been delayed before I went through the Bush era.
Speaker 3: You know, I went through the second Bush presidency where
Speaker 3: he started a war in Iraq, and you know a
Speaker 3: lot of these wars are associated with access to oil,
Speaker 3: and he slowed down our effort. You know, he wanted
Speaker 3: to do cold based stuff that just didn't pencil out
Speaker 3: at all, and his presidency slowed us down by years.
Speaker 3: But we came back during the Obama era. We pasted
Speaker 3: things going forward. We all became this close to passing
Speaker 3: a cap and invest bill. Then we got slowed down
Speaker 3: again by Trump. But then we got the Biden presidency
Speaker 3: where there's you know, a miracle of the Inflation Reduction
Speaker 3: Act and the tax cuts, which are now threatened again
Speaker 3: got passed, and we've seen spectacular economic growth. Some of
Speaker 3: these companies that I told you about Washington, they got
Speaker 3: a little benefit to get going because of those tax benefits,
Speaker 3: and right now they're under threat again. You know, we
Speaker 3: talked about Senator Tillis. He could cause forty five thousand
Speaker 3: job losses and in state over the next couple of
Speaker 3: decades if he votes to get rid of these tax
Speaker 3: cuts or to make them less accessible to people. Now
Speaker 3: I've heard he's trying to make it. He's trying to
Speaker 3: sweeten the deal a little bit. You know, he's trying
Speaker 3: to make it that you don't destroy the tax cuts
Speaker 3: till a little later. Well, that's like saying, hey, give
Speaker 3: me a benefit because I've delayed your hanging by a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks. That's not really an answer to this problem.
Speaker 3: We need Republicans to stand up and preserve this. My
Speaker 3: point is progress is not linear. Yes, you're going up
Speaker 3: and then you're stable. You're going up, then you're stable
Speaker 3: a step by step. Martin Luther King was right, said,
Speaker 3: you know, the arc of the moral universe is long, Yes,
Speaker 3: but it bends towards justice, and it is long. This
Speaker 3: battle is long, and this is a moment of we
Speaker 3: got some headwinds, but the winds are going to change.
Speaker 3: We're going to be back in business and the genius
Speaker 3: that is in our country is going to be unleashed again.
Speaker 3: And we're going to get better, cheaper energy and healthier kids. Yes,
Speaker 3: and less climate change. And I believe that's going to happen.
Speaker 3: I wish what happened.
Speaker 1: Yesterday, you and me both, Governor, But I've.
Speaker 3: Learned that the power perseverance the most important thing in
Speaker 3: this battle.
Speaker 1: Indeed, I love that the power of perseverance is a
Speaker 1: good one to focus on. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us today, you know, to give us a window
Speaker 1: into what you know and what we all can do.
Speaker 1: I hope to see you at a march, either on
Speaker 1: the water or on the land very soon.
Speaker 3: Well, I will tell people, as we've bed to do,
Speaker 3: whatever you do right now has value. You have agency,
Speaker 3: people have power and authority already right now. And anything
Speaker 3: you do of contacting your legislators, being out on the
Speaker 3: sidewalks pieceively, talking to your cranky uncle about why this
Speaker 3: is a good idea, all of those things mount up.
Speaker 3: Everybody can put a brick in the wall here. So
Speaker 3: whatever you're doing out there, keep it up. We're going
Speaker 3: to win this battle, and I will be there with you.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you,