DETROIT Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee hinted Wednesday that he is open to prosecuting fossil fuel executives, a topic that came up in Tuesdays CNN debate and is likely to again enter the debates second installment.

Standing in a community center just across the street from Michigans only oil refinery, the Washington governor said the Department of Justice should ultimately decide whether to charge executives from any industry with committing a crime.

But I do know the decisions being made are killing people in the United States, Inslee said of the oil, gas and coal industry. Thats something that should be taken seriously.

Inslee, 68, has pegged his candidacy to an ambitious slate of economic and environmental proposals to dramatically slash climate-changing emissions, end coal use by 2030 and revitalize the union movement with a clean-infrastructure construction boom. In the 11,000-word Freedom From Fossil Fuels plan he released last month , the governor vowed to establish a new office in the Department of Justice to prosecute polluters to the fullest extent of civil and criminal law.

His remark on Wednesday came a day after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 frontrunner, said a future administration must contend with an industry that knowingly earned billions of dollars by destroying the planet.

I say that is criminal activity, Sanders said.