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Articles by Rep. Jay Inslee

Jay Inslee was first elected to Congress in 1992 and served until 1994, and then was elected from the 1st Congressional District in Washington in 1999. He serves on the Energy Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He was recently named by Nancy Pelosi to the new House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and also serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources. He is the primary sponsor of the New Apollo Energy Act, and a leading advocate for renewable energy and author of Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy (Island Press).

Featured Article

You don’t want to disappoint these kids.Photo: Sean Suddes/Sierra ClubChildren’s health won’t be improved by the Republicans’ Dirty Air Act.

From Seattle to Pittsburgh, children can be found outside, playing football and baseball, or just playing a good game of tag. However, hundreds of thousands of children are unable to take part because the air they breathe is making them sick. It was disturbing, then, last week that the Energy and Commerce committee held a hearing in which Republicans were pushing ahead on legislation to gut the Clean Air Act and retire important safeguards against the very pollutants that cause these children and so many others significant health problems.

This week, in their zeal to let big polluters control public policy, Republicans attached their Dirty Air Act as a rider to their 2011 budget Continuing Resolution (CR) — important legislation to fund the operations of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year.

Hundreds of thousands of children face the severe health risks associated with air and water pollution. That is why Congress first adopted the Clean Air Act under President Richard Nix... Read more

All Articles

  • Senate needs to get back to work on clean-energy bill, says Washington rep

    Copenhagen may not have been a giant leap for mankind, but it was a step forward. So as the Congress returns to work this year, its post-Copenhagen duty remains the same as its pre-Copenhagen responsibility:  to pass an energy bill that both jump-starts the United States’ economy and screws down the nation’s carbon pollution. There […]

  • Denialism and the power of fear

    There are two types of pesky partisans on the loose right now who refuse to accept reality due to their ideological blindness — birthers and global warming deniers. This realization struck me last week as I listened to Republicans argue that we should let the world boil over, all while they “dithered” over reading silly […]

  • Three faces of hope for climate change

    Last week in Congress, I met with three people who represent the three imperatives of our efforts against global warming. One represents the morality of the endeavor, another who received the Nobel Prize represents the science behind the economics, and the third is a well known gym rat who represents the way our democracy will […]

  • New Apollo Energy Act contrasts sharply with “Jurassic” GOP energy bill

    On April 21, Congress stepped back in geologic time when the House of Representatives passed an energy policy of the dinosaurs, by the dinosaurs, and for the dinosaurs. This energy bill is truly a “Jurassic” piece of legislation that relies on a limited energy source derived from creatures and plants that died millions of years […]