Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said Wednesday his aggressive agenda to combat climate change won’t succeed, even if he wins the White House, unless Congress ends the filibuster and changes the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College.
“I don’t believe you can be serious about saying you can defeat climate change unless you realize we need to have the filibuster go the way of history because Mitch McConnell has weaponized the filibuster,” Inslee told reporters after speaking at the American Council on Renewable Energy’s annual policy forum in Washington, D.C. “You can’t be serious about having major decarbonization legislation in any near-term without removing the filibuster.”
Republicans have repeatedly resisted efforts to advance climate change legislation, helping kill a cap-and-trade carbon pricing bill in 2009.
Inslee, who’s running a single-issue campaign focused on fighting climate change, also reiterated his longtime call for the elimination of the Electoral College.
[Opinion: What you need to know about abolishing the Electoral College]
“These are archaic relics of a bygone age,” Inslee said of the filibuster and Electoral College. “We need progress. We also need democracy, which is one person, one vote. I’ve never understood why people who want to block progress like Mitch McConnell get one and half votes and people who want go defeat climate change only get one. That is a recipe for disaster when it comes to climate change.”
He challenged his primary competitors to back his call for reforms, arguing Democrats won’t be able to advance climate change legislation if they don’t change the rules.
“I challenge the other folks aspiring to this, I’m disappointed they haven’t joined me in this,” Inslee added. “You can’t say you want any meaningful progress and say you’re for the filibuster, because Mitch McConnell will block everything in the upcoming years even if we got a forward-looking president.”
