Newsom wades into a climate fight in Washington state

By Jordan Wolman | 10/29/2024 06:26 AM EDT

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was in Seattle alongside fellow climate hawk Gov. Jay Inslee in an effort to save a key program from repeal.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks alongside Gov. Jay Inslee.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting involved in a climate fight in Washington state. Courtesy of No on 2117

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been in his Democratic surrogate phase lately, jet-setting around the country to get Vice President Kamala Harris elected president.

But he made time last week for a different ballot fight: a measure in Washington state where voters will decide whether to keep or throw out their landmark carbon pricing program that state officials hope can one day be linked with California’s.

Democrats are smelling a broader opportunity to take ambitious climate policies directly to the voters and win, offering a runway to go further — though a loss could spell just as far-reaching consequences in the opposite way.

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“This initiative has national ramifications because people will be watching the result,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who leaves office in January, said in an interview a few days after the Oct. 19 rally with Newsom in Seattle. “When you test something, the result is important.”

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