Washington Governor Jay Inslee highlighted climate as his top issue in his annual State of the State address to lawmakers who this week started their 105-day legislative session.
Inslee cited concerns about low snowpack, ocean temperatures and last year’s wildfires that impacted air quality in the state. The Governor called on lawmakers to pass a proposal to require utilities to provide carbon-free electricity by 2045. Another major effort he called for in his speech is a measure to implement a clean fuel standard that requires fuel producers and importers to reduce the carbon emissions associated with transportation fuels.
On the issue of mental health, Inslee echoed bipartisan calls for reform in the system. Mental health reform and funding is an area that the governor and lawmakers in both parties have said needs to be a top priority this year. The Governor said that the state must expand the professional workforce in behavioral health, and find room for patients at community-based facilities.
Citing the case of a mother orca who triggered international sympathy last summer when she kept the body of her dead calf afloat in waters for 17 days, Inslee said the state must make “unprecedented investments” to save the ailing orca population. Inslee said that the actions that need to be taken to “restore the balance of the ecosystem” that supports the orcas include increasing salmon stocks, fixing culverts and decreasing vessel traffic.
Even though long-running court case over the adequacy of education funding in Washington state has ended, Inslee says there is more to do on education. He stressed a focus on early learning, and said that his budget proposal last month would expand pre-school with a new ‘birth to 3’ program. He also called for a plan that would offer new parents home visits from a nurse in the first few weeks after the birth of a child. (AP)
