By The Herald Editorial Board
Washington state’s transition to clean energy sources from the fossil fuels that pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — and contribute to the climate crisis — will continue to demand a great deal of planning and investments, as the state continues on its path to reduce those emissions to net-zero by 2050.
And that transition involves more than whether your next vehicle purchase is an EV.
While transportation in the state was responsible for about 39 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 — according to the state’s most recent inventory; with updated figures due this December — heating for residential, commercial and industrial buildings was the next largest contributor at 25 percent, followed by electricity generation at 21 percent.
It’s those emissions from buildings’ use of natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking that are the focus of one of four statewide initiatives on the general election ballot.
Initiative 2066, sponsored by the Building Industry of Washington, among others, seeks to overturn recently adopted legislation, including a bill requested by Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest gas utility, intended to help it plan and prepare for that transition and meet a state mandate that requires that the utility generate 80 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030 — just five years from now — and 100 percent by 2045. The law is meant to help transition customers to use of electric heat and appliances, for example, heat pumps rather than gas furnaces.
What’s generating a lot of the heat regarding I-2066 is what that transition means for the utility’s 1.2 million natural gas customers. And among those most concerned is Puget Sound Energy.
While not speaking directly to the initiative, the utility has outlined what the state law — House Bill 1589 — calls for and what it doesn’t.
What the state law does not call for, PSE outlines, is a ban on natural gas or a change in the utility’s obligation to supply gas to customers. Nor is there a requirement in the law that forces customers to switch from gas to electric. Nor is there a rate increase tied directly to the state law.
In other words, if you like your gas stove, you can keep you gas stove.
What the law allows is a consolidated process for the utility to plan for its electric and gas services in its reports to the Washington state Utilities and Transportation Commission. Puget Sound Energy is required to submit such a plan to the UTC by 2027 that outlines its plans to build or buy more electrical generation to meet its greenhouse gas reduction mandates, its schedule for recovering the costs of those investments and how quickly it can depreciate its investments in its gas-fueledpower plants.
That three-year plan won’t outline rate increase, nor is it tied to the two-year rate plan PSE recently filed with the UTC for approval.
The utility needs to plan for a transition that already is happening. While natural gas use in the state increased markedly in recent decades, in 2023, the utility saw a 7 percent drop in residential customers and a 3 percent decline in commercial customers.
The problem with I-2066, say its opponents, is that where the state law preserves the choice for natural gas, the initiative threatens to limit opportunities for homeowners, homebuilders and businesses to make the transition to electric heat pumps and appliances, which increasingly are more energy efficient than gas and can reduce energy costs over time.
Additionally, heat pumps are seen as an increasing advantage because of their ability to cool homes and filter air, as Washington experiences more frequent heat events and wildfire smoke.
“This initiative undermines the critical investments that support low-income households in accessing energy efficient appliances,” said Patience Malaba, executive director for the Housing Development Consortium, a Seattle-based association of developers of affordable housing, in a recent interview with the editorial board. “This initiative would eliminate incentives for developers to build homes with modern energy efficient technologies like heat pumps.”
Initiative opponents also challenge the notion that state laws that would be affected by the initiative will increase the costs of housing.
The initiative, said Leah Missik, deputy policy director for Climate Solutions, could actually limit access to tax credits and rebates for energy efficient appliances because those could be seen as “discouraging” the use of gas.
“We want to make sure that incentives for those are maintained,” she said. “And we have heard a lot of concern given the really broad initiative language around not discouraging gas; that some of our incentive programs could be under legal jeopardy.”
More than just affecting Puget Sound Energy, the initiative also could bar local governments from adopting ordinances or building codes that could be interpreted as discouraging gas hookups.
Supporters of the initiative see it as a way to start fresh and force the Legislature to reconsider the applicable laws, criticizing a “hasty” process that Democratic lawmakers used in HB 1589’s adoption, noting the House relied on the Senate to remove an earlier provision that would have stopped PSE from taking on new gas customers. Yet, the bill’s passage was debated, considered and amended over two sessions, a process that seems pretty standard in Olympia.
Even so, there may be further changes necessary to the law, especially as PSE and the UTC begin their three years of planning and rulemaking. As well, there could be opportunities to further protect consumers — especially lower-income families — from less-than-affordable rate increases, perhaps in the form of additional assistance from the revenue generated by the state’s carbon credit auctions; assuming that voters don’t repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act through passage of Initiative 2117.
But lawmakers shouldn’t need to start from scratch and risk losing ground already gained in reducing carbon emissions, and on a relatively tight timeline. Voters should reject Initiative 2066.
Candidate forums
Voters are invited to live and live-streamed forums sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County and the Forum Coalition. A full schedule of forums with links is available at tinyurl.com/LWVSC2024Forums.
For a recap of The Herald Editorial Board’s endorsements, go to tinyurl.com/HeraldEndorseWrap2024.
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