Governor Jay InsleeVerified account

We have allowed the unfettered release of carbon pollution into our air. That burden will be carried by our children, our economy, our security, and our quality of life.

Because on this issue, there is no geographic divide. The Eastern Washington farmer whose irrigation supply is threatened by low snowpack faces the same crisis as the Western Washington shellfish grower whose baby oysters are threatened by ocean acidification.

There is no age divide. The young child suffering from asthma is just as vulnerable as a grandparent suffering from COPD, a lung disease aggravated by heat and air pollution.

And there is no partisan divide. Nationally respected Democrats and Republicans are among those calling for a tax on carbon pollution.

Support for enacting a price on carbon is growing. Members of the business, tribal, environmental, and labor communities from across our state are coming to the table to talk about carbon pricing.

Labor leaders see the job potential in growing our clean energy economy. Our environmental leaders and tribes see the urgency of acting now to curb carbon pollution.

They all agree that putting a price on carbon this year is the right thing to do, and have committed to working with me to get that accomplished.

House and Senate members also have been working closely with my office all summer and fall to design a Washington-focused approach, and their contributions have been key.

We are joined across geography, across age, and across political interests. Now is the time to join in action and put a price on carbon pollution. #ActOnClimate #WAStateOfTheState

Doing so will allow us to reinvest in all the things that drive down emissions. We can build more solar panels. We can put more electric cars on the road.

We can help more Washingtonians purchase energy-saving insulation for their homes and businesses.

We can reduce the wildfire risk in rural communities and on tribal lands. We can improve utility services and modernize the electrical grid.

We can make much-needed upgrades to our irrigation and water-management systems. We can prepare our workforce for new careers in clean-energy.

And by doing these things, we can save our forests. We can help our rural economies. We can protect our waterways.

I am optimistic about this year, and that optimism is well justified by Washington's can-do spirit of confidence and innovation. And why shouldn't we get this done?

Carbon pricing is hardly a new or bold idea. British Columbia, our neighbor to the north, is doing it. To the south, California is doing it, and Oregon is considering it.

From Quebec to Japan, from Europe to Mexico, many states and nations have enacted a price on carbon. Even China is getting on board, having recently launched the largest carbon market on the planet.

By passing a carbon tax, we would simply join our West Coast neighbors, and the rest of the world, as the global economy moves away from fossil fuels and toward a decarbonized, clean-energy future.

I believe that Washington is exactly the right state to lead the clean-energy economy and seize the jobs that China and other nations are clamoring for.

This is who we are. We create, we invent, we build. And the people of Washington are ready to create, invent, and build the carbon-free future our children and grandchildren deserve.

These clean-energy jobs belong here. Not just in China. Not just in Germany. Not just in B.C.

Washington employs some of the most influential climate scientists in the world. Our universities and businesses are on the cutting edge of clean-energy technologies.

In the Pacific Coast region, clean-energy jobs have grown more than twice as fast as jobs in the overall economy.

Mukilteo is home to the inventors and manufacturers of the world's largest vanadium flow battery. Moses Lake is home to one of the world's largest carbon fiber manufacturing plants for electric cars.

Our state is home to the inventors of biofuels that have powered the Boeing 787 across the oceans. It is our state's destiny – because of who we are – to defeat climate change.

Even if the White House walks away from the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we will walk forward and join this battle for the world's healthy future.

The Alliance represents 40 percent of the United States economy, and if we were our own nation, we would have the third-largest economy in the world.

And is it right that we do this.