issue area reports | energy and environment
Energy and Environment
Peter Godlewski : Energy , Environment and Water Policy
With the passage of the Climate Committment At ( CCA ) last year , there was a hope that this year would be quieter for energy issues . Several key legislators even spoke to the need to calm down after a busy three years to let implementation catch up before moving forward with new policies . There also remained some important and unresolved issues around Energy Intensive Trade Exposed entities ( EITEs ) from last year ’ s CCA . As part of the deal to pass the Climate Commitment Act , no money collected from the program could be spent until there was a compliance pathway created for EITEs past 2030 . This issue was a major sticking point last year and figuring out a solution was a priority for this session and was expected to take a lot of energy .
However , the governor and several progressive legislators still pushed for yet more climate action on their next target : natural gas . The
AWB Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski gives an update on the 2022 legislative session during a post-session webinar .
governor ’ s office came out with four bills which would restrict the use of natural gas and / or add costs to the natural gas system . Most of these ideas were repeats from Rep . Alex Ramel ’ s HB 1084 , which died last session . Ramel , D-Bellingham , spent the summer doing some intensive outreach work and split the goals of HB 1084 into four new bills which were included as governorrequest legislation . The discussion around natural gas tied into another developing issue for the state , how to meet the growing needs of utilities to meet electricity demand in the state .
With the passage of the Clean Energy Transformation Act ( CETA ) in 2019 , utilities are required to increase their share of electricity generated from renewable sources while also phasing out fossil fuel generation . Pressures from population growth and growth of electric vehicles ( EVs ) are driving the need for more electricity at the same time as several major sources of fossil fuel baseload are being removed . This is a recipe for blackouts . Utilities are struggling to find new CETA-compliant sources of energy , mainly solar and wind from Eastern Washington . However , there remain considerable challenges around the siting of these resources and the necessary infrastructure needed to get that energy over the mountains to Western Washington . This year saw a serious discussion about the risks of blackouts and the need for substantiative permitting reform which would make it easier to build the infrastructure needed to meet new demand . This year saw some early ideas and it ’ s very likely that many of these topics will return in the coming years .
However , despite the number of bills and issues that were being discussed at the start of session , it did end up being a fairly quiet year for energy bills . The EITE legislation did not pass ; however , the language preventing the spending of the CCA revenues was removed by the transportation package , allowing Ecology to spend the revenues . Only one of the natural gas bills ended up passing after significant changes . And little action was taken down the road to permitting reform with only limited changes . Many of the issues raised this year will continue to be discussed in the coming years . special edition 2022 19