Good news from Olympia!
Last Friday the Senate Ways & Means Committee voted to pass HB 1257, the Clean Buildings for Washington Act. The bill is now waiting to be scheduled for debate on the Senate Floor. Please reach out to your state Senator to voice your strong support for this bill and to encourage them to vote yes. Email Kerry with any questions!
In the House, SB 5116, 100% Clean, was passed last Thursday and now moves back to the Senate for concurrence. The bill has already passed the Senate, so once the revisions are approved, 100% Clean moves to the Governor. This is historic legislation and will drive tremendous change throughout WA in how our utilities manage their power profiles and the electric grid at large. NEEC has advocated for the role of energy efficiency in our clean energy future and believe this legislation has left room for the customer side of the meter to participate. We’re excited!
In Oregon, NEEC has been reaching out to legislators to advocate for the role of energy efficiency within HB 2020, which creates a cap and invest program within the state. We are supportive of the bill and believe it will accelerate decarbonization efforts. We were particularly pleased to see that building efficiency is recognized within the bill as one of the methods the state can leverage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote adaptation and resiliency. We were also pleased that distributed energy resources (DERs) were listed as a method by which the state can decarbonize the electric grid. Both 100% Clean in Washington and HB 2020 in Oregon will transform the power grid and provide an opportunity for consumers to participate in the grid in new ways. NEEC is advocating that we define DERs in a manner that includes customer-sited technologies such as energy efficiency and the value these can bring to stabilizing the grid as we expand the volume of intermittent resources, such as wind and solar. We also believe that this will improve economic development outcomes from the clean energy economy created by this bill as new business models emerge to support development and delivery of customer DERs to Oregon. We urge you to review this important legislation and consider how energy efficiency might participate in carbon reductions as part of a stack of customer-sited resources. If you have any questions or thoughts to share on this, please reach out.