As Inslee’s final legislative session ends, more work remains to cement climate legacy

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Jay Inslee closed out the final day of his last legislative session as Washington state governor on Thursday by describing it as a banner year in the state’s fight against climate change.

“I’m confident that 50 years from now, people will look back and say this was our finest hour because we led the nation in tackling this problem,” he told reporters, highlighting a bill passed that is expected to link Washington’s carbon market with California and Quebec, which also have emission allowance auctions.

As the longest-serving governor in office in the U.S., Inslee has sought to make the state a leader in the fight against climate change. But rather than this session putting an exclamation mark on his three terms in office, uncertainty hangs in the air.

One of the biggest climate policies passed during his tenure — along with many programs it is earmarked to fund — hangs in limbo. Conservative-backed initiatives that would repeal the state’s year-old carbon pricing program will be heading to voters in November after lawmakers opted not to consider it this session.

The initiative is one of six certified after the group Let’s Go Washington, which is primarily bankrolled by hedge fund executive Brian Heywood, submitted hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of them. Initiatives that would give police greater ability to pursue people in vehicles, declare a series of rights for parents of public-school students and bar an income tax were approved by lawmakers on Monday. An initiative to repeal a tax on the sale of stocks and bonds and one that could threaten a long-term care insurance program will likely also head straight to voters.