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