2022 legislative review
AWB Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski leads a discussion at Legislative Day & Hill Climb with Rep . Joe Fitzgibbon , D-West Seattle , chair of the House Environment & Energy Committee .
limits on statewide preemption , repeals the state Clean Air Rule and also tasks the Office of Financial Management to create a study on the existing laws that regulate GHGs from stationary sources and the GHG emissions reductions associated with those laws . The study is due to the Legislature by December 2023 . AWB originally opposed the bill but went to support after we secured changes in the House . The bill passed 81-15 in the House and 36-13 in the Senate .
HB 1812 modernizing the energy facility site evaluation council to meet the state ’ s clean energy goals
Passed / AWB Supported
This session marked the fourth year this particular bill has been introduced in one form or another . The bill spins off the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council ( EFSEC ) which is currently part of the UTC , into a separate agency . The bill also allows projects to utilize an accelerated permitting process for certain clean energy manufacturing projects that would , under certain circumstances , be able to have a shortcut through the permitting process .
While AWB has supported bills that provide permitting reform and relief for projects in the past , this bill added several conditions and qualifiers to the expedited process that AWB members did not think went far enough . These included requiring that any project that utilized the expedited process retain EFSEC as the main regulator during operation ( even when another state agency would have more experience ), allowing the head of EFSEC wide latitude in determining which projects met the criteria for utilizing the expedited process , and limiting the new process to only clean energy manufacturing projects instead all possible projects .
AWB initially testified neutral on the bill , speaking in support of the idea of easing permitting for projects while questioning the need for another state agency . As the bill was ready to move off the floor , a deal was struck to allow a Republican amendment which created a study of clean energy siting across the state and their impacts on rural communities if the Republicans would support the bill . AWB was asked to support the bill as part of the final deal to move the bill and the Energy Committee members had little objection to shifting to support . AWB moved to a position of support . The bill passed 92-6 in the House and 29-20 in the Senate .
environment
The issue of extended producer responsibility ( EPR ) remained the top issue for the Environment committee . After last year ’ s paring down of SB 5022 to meet the constraints of a virtual session , the environmental advocates pushing for this policy returned with a newer version of the policy . Advocates held listening sessions over the summer on the draft version of the bill , but were reluctant to make significant changes . As a result , the version of the bill that was introduced was largely opposed by employers and despite some attempts late in the process to make changes , the bill ended up dying . With the subsequent retirement of Sen . Mona Das , D-Kent , the champion of this policy , it is unclear if the issue will be reintroduced in the future .
Another area of activity for this committee related to chemical safety . There was one bill introduced which would have made some sweeping changes to how the Safer Products for Washington Process was managed and another which tried to limit
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