Leadership Quote by Jay Inslee

“Break our addiction” is a deliberately moralized metaphor, and Inslee knows exactly what he’s doing with it. Addiction language turns an energy supply chain into a story of dependency, weakness, and self-harm - a framing designed to make policy feel urgent rather than technocratic. It’s not just about switching fuels; it’s about reclaiming agency. By casting Saudi oil as the substance, he implies the U.S. isn’t merely buying a commodity, it’s feeding a habit that distorts choices and corrodes sovereignty.

The second half of the line - “a security threat to the United States” - is the rhetorical bridge that lets climate and foreign policy share the same platform. Inslee, a climate-forward governor who’s long tried to drag environmental policy out of the “nice-to-have” corner, is tying decarbonization to the post-9/11, post-Iraq war vocabulary of national security. That’s subtext with an audience: voters who might shrug at carbon parts-per-million but perk up at “threat.”

The context is decades of U.S. entanglement in Middle East geopolitics, plus periodic oil shocks that make “energy independence” a recurring campaign mantra. Calling out Saudi Arabia specifically also rides a vein of bipartisan discomfort with Riyadh - human rights controversies, the war in Yemen, the Khashoggi murder, and the uneasy reality that strategic partners can still be destabilizing. The intent isn’t subtle: reframe renewable energy not as sacrifice, but as self-defense.