March 2, 2019: Week Seven
Week seven here in Olympia has brought us nearly to the half-way mark of session—day 48 of 105—and ushered in the second big cut-off today by which all bills with a fiscal impact had to be voted out of their fiscal committees. Between this deadline and last Friday’s policy committee cut-off, this week was spent almost entirely in the five fiscal committees—House Finance, Appropriations, and Transportation and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation—pumping out hundreds of bills well into the evening. The next week and a half will now be spent exclusively on the House and Senate floors as members work to pass hundreds of bills out of their House of Origin before the next cut-off on March 13th.
We are still in the very early stage of budget discussions and do not expect to see the first iterations released until sometime between March 15-20, pursuant on new budget forecasts that are anticipated around that time.
Senator Hobbs’ comprehensive transportation package (SB 5970/5971/5972) did receive initial public testimony this week. It brought out stakeholders from a wide variety of industries for over three hours of hearing time with generalized support expressed from local governments and the development sector for the proposed spending projects and notable opposition from the business community around the carbon fee and various other aspects of the revenue portion. It was reminded numerous times through the proceedings that a large package of this type will involve many alterations and be a multi-year effort.
Most notably this week, the latest Senate version of the Governor’s 100% Clean Energy bill, ESSSB 5116, was voted out of the Senate 28-19 on Friday morning—expertly coinciding with the Governor’s much-anticipated announcement of his presidential campaign. The bill came a hair’s breath away from including a Republican-sponsored amendment to suspend enforcement of the act for “highly impacted communities” if electric rates increased, which failed to pass by just one vote. The bill is now scheduled for public hearing in the House Environment committee next Tuesday at 8:00.
The Governor’s Clean Buildings bills continued to move forward this week. SSHB 1257 was heard and passed out of the Finance committee with three amendments, however the vote was a close one with two Democrats voting ‘no,’ based on the desire to have more conversation about public vs. private buildings and transparency in cost/recovery time. The Senate version, SSSB 5293, also passed out of fiscal committee with one Democrat voting in opposition. Both continue to face pressure from the development community.
The Low Carbon Fuel Standard legislation, SSHB 1110, passed out of fiscal committee this week on pure party lines. It will be brought to the floor for a chamber-wide vote early next week.
Upcoming Hearings
Environment & Energy (House) – HHR B, JLOB – 3/5 @ 8:00am
- 2SSB 5116 – Public Hearing – Supporting Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future. (If measure is referred to committee.)
Bill Status
High Priority Bills
| Bill # | Title | Status | Sponsor | Position |
| SHB 1226 | Encouraging investment in and reducing the costs of transitioning to the clean energy future. | H Finance | DeBolt |
Other Bills
| Bill # | Title | Status | Sponsor | Position |
| HB 1102 (SB 5134) |
Concerning the capital budget. | H Cap Budget | Tharinger | |
| HB 1109 (SB 5153) |
Making 2019-2021 biennium operating appropriations. | H Approps | Ormsby | |
| 2SHB 1110 (SB 5412) |
Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation fuels. | H Rules R | Fitzgibbon | |
| SHB 1113 | Amending state greenhouse gas emission limits for consistency with the most recent assessment of climate change science and with the United States’ commitment under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. | H Approps | Slatter | |
| HB 1126 | Enabling electric utilities to prepare for the distributed energy future. | H 2nd Reading | Morris | |
| 2SHB 1211 (E2SSB 5116) |
Supporting Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future. | H Approps | Tarleton | |
| 2SHB 1257 (2SSB 5293) |
Concerning energy efficiency. | H Approps | Doglio | |
| HB 1397 | Encouraging the use of electric or hybrid-electric aircraft for regional air travel. | H 2nd Reading | Slatter | |
| SHB 1642 | Allowing the energy savings associated with on-bill repayment programs to count toward a qualifying utility’s energy conservation targets under the energy independence act. | H Rules R | Doglio | |
| SHB 1796 (SB 5730) |
Concerning commercial property assessed clean energy and resilience. | H Rules R | Doglio | |
| SHB 1832 | Concerning the electrification of the Washington public vehicle fleet. | H Trans | Macri | |
| HB 2042 | Advancing green transportation adoption. | H Trans | Fey | |
| SB 5108 (HB 1070) |
Concerning the tax treatment of renewable natural gas. | S Environment, E | King | |
| 2SSB 5115 (2SHB 1444) |
Concerning appliance efficiency standards. | S Rules 2 | Carlyle | |
| E2SSB 5116 (2SHB 1211) |
Supporting Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future. | S Passed 3rd | Carlyle | |
| SB 5118 | Concerning the right to consume self-generated electricity. | S 2nd Reading | Palumbo | |
| SB 5134 (HB 1102) |
Concerning the capital budget. | S Ways & Means | Frockt | |
| SB 5153 (HB 1109) |
Making 2019-2021 biennium operating appropriations. | S Ways & Means | Rolfes | |
| 2SSB 5223 (HB 1862) |
Concerning net metering. | S 2nd Reading | Palumbo | |
| 2SSB 5293 (2SHB 1257) |
Concerning energy efficiency. | S Rules 2 | Carlyle | |
| SSB 5336 (HB 1664) |
Advancing electric transportation. | S Transportation | Palumbo | |
| SSB 5588 | Authorizing the production, distribution, and sale of renewable hydrogen. | H Env & Energy | Hawkins | |
| SB 5811 (HB 1999) |
Reducing emissions by making changes to the clean car standards and clean car program. | S 2nd Reading | Nguyen | |
| SSB 5936 (HB 2079) |
S Rules 2 | Brown |
Dead Bills
| Bill # | Title | Status | Sponsor | Position |
| HB 1127 | Concerning the electrification of transportation. | H Env & Energy | Morris | |
| HB 1128 | Authorizing an alternative form of regulation of electrical and natural gas companies. | H Env & Energy | Morris | |
| HB 1129 | Concerning customer-sited electricity generation. | H Env & Energy | Morris | |
| HB 1664 (SSB 5336) |
Advancing electric transportation. | H Env & Energy | Slatter | |
| HB 1862 (2SSB 5223) |
Concerning net metering. | H Env & Energy | Mead | |
| HB 1984 | Ensuring that attempts to limit greenhouse gas emissions in Washington state do not make Washington’s agricultural products and food processing businesses economically uncompetitive, thereby shifting emissions to jurisdictions without similar greenhouse gas policies. | H Env & Energy | Maycumber | |
| HB 2079 (SSB 5936) |
Concerning use of industrial waste through industrial symbioses. | H Env & Energy | Doglio | |
| SB 5412 (2SHB 1110) |
Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation fuels. | S Environment, E | Salda?a | |
| SB 5629 | Promoting small modular reactors in Washington. | S Environment, E | Brown | |
| SB 5730 (SHB 1796) |
Concerning commercial property assessed clean energy and resilience. | S Environment, E | Palumbo |