Inslee's climate plan adds investments for rural U.S., farmers

Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee expanded on his climate change plan Wednesday, outlining additional goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and rewarding American farmers for green achievements.

The Washington governor's strategy encourages agricultural innovation as a partial solution to stem rising climate change, triples federal funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program and incentivizes farmers to capture greenhouse gases.

"My Growing Rural Prosperity plan will reinvigorate America's rural and farming communities while empowering farmers to benefit from enormous economic opportunities as we build America's clean economy and work to defeat climate change," Inslee said in the update, titled "Growing Rural Prosperity."

Wednesday's is the sixth and final prong of Inslee's Climate Mission agenda. It blames climate change for extreme weather events and stronger phenomena such as floods, hurricanes, forest fires, droughts and "blazing heatwaves."

The plan also calls for agricultural investments to spur innovations aimed at scaling back climate change, encouraging farmers to keep harvesting, investing in rural prosperity, improving forest health and protecting public lands.

Inslee said his plan would wipe out President Donald Trump's "chaotic and wrong-headed" trade policies he says have backfired on U.S. farmers, especially soybean growers.

"The Trump administration's policies have deeply damaged America's rural areas and its agricultural sector," he said. "Once reliable export markets have been undermined by Trump's schoolyard tariff fights with China."

Inslee plans to expand electricity and broadband Internet to rural areas and make infrastructure improvements intended to prevent droughts and severe floods.