The Washington State Legislature is a full two weeks into its scheduled 60 day 2012 session. While budget issues and gay marriage legislation are grabbing local headlines, there are a number of proposed bills dealing with energy and utilities and a handful of direct interest to the energy efficiency community. NEEC offers a convenient “Bill Tracker” link on the front page of its website [buildingpotential.org] found in the upper right hand corner of the home page. (Note, that Oregon bills will be tracked from this link when that state’s Legislature convenes – see story below.)
No discussion of Washington energy legislation can go by without discussing proposed changes to the state’s Energy Independence statute (aka I-937). This year is no exception. After this issue paralyzed the Legislature in 2010, there was a hiatus in activity last year with tacit agreement among the stakeholders that I-937 would be addressed in 2012. And addressed it is with more than 12 separate pieces of legislation offering a variety of ways to “fix” the statute. Despite a somewhat more pleasant outward demeanor by interest groups, things don’t appear to have changed all that much. (This certainly is true for NEEC, who remains committed to the notion that I-937 would be improved by allowing energy efficiency acquisitions above a utility’s 2 year target to be used to meet the renewable standard.)