$9 trillion climate plan touted as economic boom

Presidential hopeful Jay Inslee is pitching a $9 trillion plan as an economic renaissance and a scientific necessity.

Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee is pitching a $9 trillionplus climate action plan that he touts as an economic renaissance and scientific necessity, putting the Washington governor at the forefront of White House hopefuls pushing for sweeping action to combat the causes and effects of a warming planet. Inslee compares his “Evergreen Economy” plan, which combines public and private spending, to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the mobilization of the U.S. manufacturing base during World War II and the 1960s NASA mission to reach the moon. “We didn’t go to the moon because it was easy, but because it was hard,” Inslee told The Associated Press ahead of the release of his 38-page plan on Thursday. “We need a common purpose ... that meets the scientific necessity.” Inslee’s proposal comes as some Democrats on Capitol Hill push a “Green New Deal” with a similar focus, but the former congressman, who has spent decades as a leading advocate for combating rising carbon levels, is seeking to carve out his own path on the issue. The plan would marshal 28 new or existing programs to shift U.S energy markets from fossil fuel dependence to renewable sources; transform U.S. automobile manufacturing and construction practices; and remake the nation’s infrastructure from public transit to municipal water and rural electric cooperatives. Inslee projects about $300 billion in annual government spending over the first decade of the plan, with incentives he says will generate about $600 billion in matching private sector investment on everything from expanding solar energy to rebuilding dilapidating water systems like the Flint, Michigan, infrastructure that has garnered national headlines. Among Inslee’s ideas are a ReBuild America program that would help retrofit existing public and private structures to meet new energy standards and a new version of the post-World War II “G.I. Bill” targeted to help coal industry workers who lose jobs in a transition to renewable energy. The coal worker aide would include guarantees for health insurance and pension benefits, in addition to funds for career training. Inslee and his aides note that many of the ideas stem from public and private initiatives already being undertaken in cities and states around the country. Aides say Inslee plans a series of events highlighting some of those efforts, beginning Thursday at a wastewater treatment plant in Washington, D.C., that uses thermal hydrolysis to convert wastewater into electricity. Inslee already had called for setting standards that would require the nation’s entire electrical grid and all new vehicles and buildings to be carbon pollution free by 2030, while phasing out all coal-fired power by 2035. His latest proposal details how the federal government would meet this goal.