Olympia Legislative Report, Cutoff, March 13, 2013

Washington Clean Tech Alliance

Prepared by:  Boswell Consulting

Wednesday, March 13 was legislative cut off. This means that any piece of legislation that is not specifically related to the budget must be passed out of its originating chamber or it is considered dead for this session.  (In other words, Senate bills have to be passed over to the House and vice versa.)

Bills that have come out of their originating chamber and are still in play at this time are:

  • HB 1301 (creating clean energy jobs in Washington state through renewable energy incentives) passed out to the Senate and is scheduled for executive session in the Senate Committee on Trade & Economic Development at 8:00 AM on Thursday March 14th. Trade & Economic Development will be voting this bill out of their committee and into Energy, Environment & Telecommunications committee where a public hearing will be held.
  • SB 5297 (concerning coal transition power) moved into the Environment Committee in the House. This bill aims to allow the use of coal transitional power under I-937.
  • SB 5400 (allowing utilities serving customers in Washington and in other states to use eligible renewable resources in their other states to comply with chapter 19.285 RCW, the energy independence act) barely moved to the House chamber with a 25-23 vote.
  • SB 5802 (developing recommendations to achieve the state’s greenhouse gas emissions targets) passed to the House the morning of the 13th.

The governor’s green house gas work group legislation is moving in both the House and Senate. It is unclear what will come from this; however, it is apparent that Governor Inslee will be focusing on climate change policies that will come out of these work groups.

HB 1693 provides tax relief for new businesses in high growth business sectors. Although this bill has not moved off of the floor and into the Senate chamber thus far, any specific tax policy is usually considered exempt from cut offs. This legislation is still very much in play with the final budget negotiations.

HB 1106 (regarding net metering of electricity) did not make it onto the floor and is dead for this session.

SB 5648 (making energy conservation a top priority by adding new incentives and aligning the timing of the acquisitions of eligible renewable resources, electricity, or equivalent renewable energy credits, with the need for additional electric generating resources to serve consumer loads, without changing the eligible renewable targets, also known as the buy-before-need bill) has not passed into the House chamber and is considered dead for this session.

Read the full report including Bill Tracking here.