ICYMI: Governor Jay Inslee: Trump poses a dangerous threat to Americans suffering from climate change

Washington, DC — As Americans across the country head to the polls, U.S. News & World Report published a new op-ed by Washington Governor Jay Inslee on how Trump’s denial of climate change in the face of back-to-back extreme storms this fall puts Americans at risk. 

U.S. News & World Report: Trump is Selling the Climate to the Highest Bidder. You Will Pay the Price.

Like so many Americans, I watched in horror as Hurricanes Milton, Helene and Beryl wreaked havoc across the South and Southeast during this Atlantic storm season, killing more than 300 people and racking up tens of millions of dollars in property damage. Unfortunately, major natural disasters like these are increasing in intensity and frequency, and they are fueled by climate change.

These tragedies are a wake-up call – no matter where we live or what our political ideology – that we have to confront climate change with solutions, not pretend it doesn’t exist. That means we must reject dangerous individuals, such as former President Donald Trump, who is embracing dangerous policies in his appeal for political donations from the fossil fuel industry, while denying the suffering that climate change is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.

The science behind how climate change made these storms more destructive is not in dispute: As greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and the oceans, they trap heat. Warm ocean waters fuel hurricanes and allow them to gain more energy, resulting in stronger winds, heavier rainfall and increased storm surges. This is precisely what scientists have been warning about for years. That’s why even cities and towns that were considered climate havens – such as Asheville, North Carolina, which is hundreds of miles inland – got so badly battered. In this unfortunate new reality, we are all at risk.

In Washington state, where I serve as governor, we, too, are suffering from the impacts of climate change. Throughout the West, our kids are forced to spend summer days inside because the smoke from wildfires is too dangerous to breathe. Farmers and laborers are working in sweltering and life-threatening heat. Over 300,000 coastal homes in the U.S. are at risk because of rising sea levels and erosion, and communities in my state have already been forced to leave their homes.

In 2023 alone, climate disasters in my state destroyed nearly 400 homes and cost an estimated $1 billion in infrastructure damage, recovery efforts and losses to businesses. Across the United States, we have borne more than $2 trillion in climate-related costs since 1980, including $95 billion in just the last year. All of us Americans are paying the price with increased higher insurance rates and rising energy bills as well.

We are taking action in my state with the Climate Commitment Act and laws requiring electric utilities to accelerate the transition to clean energy. Twenty-four governors from both parties who are part of the U.S. Climate Alliance, including Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, are taking action to safeguard public health, grow the economy and secure America’s future through clean energy, transportation, finance and infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It is critically important that our elected leaders deal in facts and commit to advancing policies that will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.

Vice President Kamala Harris is already working to address this growing crisis and bring these climate-related costs down. As California’s attorney general, she went after corporate polluters, enabling state and local officials to collect millions of dollars on behalf of businesses and individuals who were harmed by oil spills, while Volkswagen was forced to pay a multi-billion dollar settlement over emissions fraud.

As vice president, she cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the most significant climate action in U.S. history, which triples federal investment in clean energy and creates more than 330,000 jobs. This bill, plus the rest of the Biden-Harris administration’s clean energy plan, could save Americans a total of $38 billion, or $290-per-household, on electricity bills by 2030. Harris has already demonstrated she will take steps to slow down climate change and reinforce our electric grid, infrastructure and other systems to safeguard our future against climate disasters.

In contrast, Trump’s misguided policies will benefit the oil and gas industry, which has donated $14.1 million to his campaign through Aug. 31, according to campaign filings. An influential oil and gas group has already drafted plans to dismantle Biden administration climate rules if Trump wins. And it’s ordinary Americans who will pay the price. Trump’s policies would raise household energy costs by $240 per year and eliminate 1.7 million clean energy jobs, according to analysis by the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation Policy & Technology.

When Trump was president, he denied the reality of climate change and exited the Paris Climate Agreement, the legally binding United Nations accord to keep down rising temperatures that was signed by nearly every nation on earth. When the deadly Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, Trump blocked vital aid to victims, callously tossing paper towel rolls to them instead. Here in Washington state, Trump withheld federal aid to victims of devastating wildfires in 2020. And if he gets another chance at the White House, he will continue to deny climate change, leaving us Americans to pay the cost in money and lives.

In contrast, as vice president, Harris was on the ground in hurricane-ravaged Georgia and North Carolina consoling and supporting victims, while Trump was spreading lies, falsely claiming that the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent money meant for hurricane victims on illegal migrants. Rather than helping victims of climate disasters, Trump was interfering with the effective federal disaster response.

All of this is proof, if any more were needed, that Harris is the only presidential candidate on the ballot this November who will help us build a stronger, more prosperous and environmentally sound American economy, ensuring that our loved ones and communities have a chance at a safe and sustainable future.