April 14, 2019: Week Thirteen.

Week 13 here in Olympia has come and gone and with it the last of committee action on bills that are still making their way through the legislature. Following Tuesday’s deadline for bills with a budget impact to be voted out of their opposite-house fiscal committee, legislators turned back to constant floor action to churn through hundreds of bills before next Wednesday’s 5:00 pm opposite-chamber cutoff. Those that have been altered will then head back to their House of origin for concurrence and then move toward final passage at the signature of the Governor.

Both the House and Senate have also simultaneously continued negotiations on the final budget. A side-by-side comparison of the two proposed operating budgets was published this week and can be found here. Once the spending portion of the budget has been agreed upon, the conversation will then move to the likely larger source of debate—what the revenue sources will be to fill the gap. Most likely we expect to see agreement around some sort of REET and B&O but it is unclear exactly how these would be applied and if additional taxes will be considered.

Most significant this week was the passage of the Governor’s comprehensive clean energy legislation, SB 5116, out of the House on Thursday afternoon. A number of relatively minor technical amendments were adopted and floor speeches consumed nearly three hours, ultimately culminating in a 56-42 vote with one Democrat, Rep. Brain Blake of Aberdeen voting in opposition. The bill will now go back to Senate for concurrence. All indications suggest that there will be no issues with this step and the bill will then head to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law. 

The net metering legislation for solar energy systems, SB 5223, also passed out of the House this week and will now return to the Senate for concurrence. This is a significant victory for the solar industry as it will allow many more customers to receive full utility compensation for the energy they generate through their panels. 

Another portion of Gov. Inslee’s climate package, the energy efficiency/clean buildings legislation (HB 1257) passed out of its opposite-house fiscal committee on Monday on primarily party lines. One amendment to reduce the required portion of EV charging stations in buildings from 50% to 20% was adopted. Another amendment to cap the amount of penalties for non-compliance at $25,000 was not adopted. The bill has now been pulled from the Rules committee and we are actively working to bring it to the Senate floor for a chamber-wide vote. 

The LCFS legislation is technically still alive (it is exempt from cutoffs due to its fiscal nature) but continues to lose momentum with each day that it sees no action. 

Bill Status

Monitoring Bills

Dead Bills

Bill #	Title	Status	Sponsor	Position
SHB 1102 (SSB 5134)	Concerning the capital budget.	S 2nd Reading	Tharinger
ESHB 1109 (SB 5153)	Making 2019-2021 biennium operating appropriations and 2017-2019 biennium second supplemental operating appropriations.	S Passed 3rd	Ormsby
E2SHB 1110 (SB 5412)	Reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation fuels.	S Transportation	Fitzgibbon
EHB 1126	Enabling electric utilities to prepare for the distributed energy future.	S 2nd Reading	Morris
E3SHB 1257 (2SSB 5293)	Concerning energy efficiency.	S 2nd Reading	Doglio
HB 1397	Encouraging the use of electric or hybrid-electric aircraft for regional air travel.	S Rules 2	Slatter
SHB 1832	Concerning the electrification of the Washington public vehicle fleet.	H Trans	Macri
SHB 2042	Advancing green transportation adoption.	H Finance	Fey
HB 2156	Investing in quality prekindergarten, K-12, and postsecondary opportunities throughout Washington with excise taxes on sales and extraordinary profits of high valued assets.	H Finance	Jinkins
HB 2157	Updating the Washington tax structure to address the needs of Washingtonians.	H Finance	Tarleton
SB 5108 (HB 1070)	Concerning the tax treatment of renewable natural gas.	S Environment, E	King
E2SSB 5116 (2SHB 1211)	Supporting Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future.	H Passed 3rd	Carlyle
SSB 5134 (SHB 1102)	Concerning the capital budget.	S Rules 2	Frockt
SB 5153 (ESHB 1109)	Making 2019-2021 biennium operating appropriations.	S Ways & Means	Rolfes
E2SSB 5223 (HB 1862)	Concerning net metering.	H Passed 3rd	Palumbo
SSB 5588	Authorizing the production, distribution, and sale of renewable hydrogen.	Del to Gov	Hawkins
SSB 5936 (HB 2079)	Concerning use of industrial waste through industrial symbioses.	H Approps	Brown
SB 5981	Implementing a greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade program.	S Environment, E	Carlyle
SB 6000	Relating to state general obligation bonds and related accounts.	S Ways & Means	Frockt
SB 6001	Relating to the capital budget.	S Ways & Means	Frockt
SB 6002	Relating to the capital budget.	S Ways & Means	Frockt
SB 6003	Relating to state government.	S Ways & Means	Rolfes
SB 6004	Relating to fiscal matters.	S Ways & Means	Rolfes
SB 6005	Relating to revenue.	S Ways & Means	Rolfes
SB 6006	Relating to education.	S Ways & Means	Rolfes

Bill #	Title	Status	Sponsor	Position
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 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
2SHB 1211 (E2SSB 5116)	Supporting Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future.	H Approps	Tarleton
SHB 1226	Encouraging investment in and reducing the costs of transitioning to the clean energy future.	H Finance	DeBolt
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 C	Doglio
HB 1664 (2SSB 5336)	Advancing electric transportation.	H Env & Energy	Slatter
SHB 1796 (SB 5730)	Concerning commercial property assessed clean energy and resilience.	H Rules C	Doglio
HB 1862 (E2SSB 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
2SSB 5115 (2SHB 1444)	Concerning appliance efficiency standards.	S Rules X	Carlyle
SB 5118	Concerning the right to consume self-generated electricity.	S Rules X	Palumbo
2SSB 5293 (E3SHB 1257)	Concerning energy efficiency.	S Rules X	Carlyle
2SSB 5336 (HB 1664)	Advancing electric transportation.	S Ways & Means	Palumbo
SB 5412 (E2SHB 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
SB 5811 (HB 1999)	Reducing emissions by making changes to the clean car standards and clean car program.	H Env & Energy	Nguyen
SB 5980	Relating to greenhouse gas emissions.	S Environment, E	Honeyford