The Trump Administration is expected to announce any day now plans to reverse a raft of Obama-era climate change policies. Governors and mayors along the West Coast have stated their opposition to the move. And Saturday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared their intention to forge ahead with regional climate change efforts.
Speaking at the Washington State Department of Commerce in Seattle, Inslee and Brown said they wouldn’t allow the White House to derail climate change policies and programs the region has put in place. Inslee said he assured a United Nations climate conference in New York Thursday that the West Coast states would not reverse course.
"The West Coast is going to move forward to beat climate change," he said. "The West Coast going to move forward to build clean energy jobs. The West Coast will be allied with the rest of the world that understands science."
Brown acknowledged that a small state like Oregon can do only so much by itself. But, she said, with California and British Columbia, the West Coast has 54 million people and enormous economic clout.
"We are only a small part of the global climate challenge," she said. "But as part of the Pacific Coast Collaborative, we can be a large part of the solution."
In recent years, West Coast states have passed laws to price carbon, boost renewable energy, reduce fossil fuels, encourage energy conservation and more.
