Week Twelve
Monday, April 5th marks the 85th day of the 105-day legislative session. Friday, April 2nd was the opposite house fiscal cutoff where all bills that are still in play needed to be voted out of their opposite house fiscal committee to stay alive. This week was full of long fiscal committee hearings and executive sessions with little floor action, other than passing their respective budget proposals. Both the House and Senate passed their Transportation, Capital, and Operating budget bills and now negotiations between the two chambers will begin. For updated budget proposals click here. After a long week of fiscal committees, on Saturday both bodies went back to the floor, the House passed their version of the Operating Budget and the Senate ran policy bills.
This week the House Finance Committee took executive action on Rep. Noel Frame’s wealth tax proposal HB 1406, which establishes a 1% tax on intangible financial assets of more than $1 billion. The bill has been referred to the House Appropriations Committee for further consideration. On Monday, the House Transportation Chair, Representative Jake Fey introduced his new transportation spending plan HB 1564, which was heard on Tuesday in the House Transportation Committee. This proposal is a 2-year spending plan that allots $893 million in additional funding to transportation in the 2021-23 biennium.
On Monday, March 31st the Governor announced that beginning on April 15th, all Washingtonians age 16 and up will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The expanded eligibility is in part due to the recent increase in covid-19 cases. In the coming weeks a modest increase in the direct vaccine supply given to the state is expected. On April 12th, the state will reevaluate every county’s phase three status and at this point several counties, including King County, could be moving back to phase two.
Next week both bodies will be on the floor passing policy bills until the opposite house cutoff on April 11th. To view bills that have been signed by the Governor click here. To watch a summary of the highlights from this week click here.
Important Dates:
Feb 15 – House of Origin Policy Cutoff
Feb 22 – House of Origin Fiscal Cutoff
March 9 – House of Origin Floor Cutoff
March 26 – Opposite House Policy Cutoff
April 2 – Opposite House Fiscal Cutoff April 11 – Opposite House Floor Cutoff April 25 – Sine Die
The low carbon fuel standard legislation from Representative Fitzgibbon, HB 1091, passed out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday, April 1st on a party line vote. Senator Carlyle’s Cap & Invest legislation, SB 5126, is on the floor calendar.
Decarbonization of buildings legislation brought forward by Representative Ramel HB 1084 remains in the House Appropriations Committee and is unlikely to move forward this year. The HEAL Act legislation sponsored by Senator Saldana, SB 5141, passed the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, March 31st. This legislation concerns implementing recommendations from the environmental justice task force. The bill will now head to Rules where it can be pulled to the House floor calendar.
We continue to monitor HB 1513 and HB 1534 brought forward by Representatives Lekanoff and Shewmake concerning a proposed carbon tax and bond legislative package. Neither bill is scheduled for public hearing at this time.
After passing out of the Senate Energy, Environment and Technology Committee last week, HB 1280 remains in the Senate Rules committee where it is awaiting floor action. This legislation sponsored by Representative Ramel would set requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in public facilities design.
Sponsored by Representative Shewmake, HB 1393, related to delaying the stewardship plan and annual report for solar panel manufacturers passed the Senate on Monday, March 29th with a 45-4 vote.
Both the House and Senate capital budgets have passed, and we are working on trying to secure the House level funding for the Clean Energy Fund.
Clean Tech Alliance Bill Status & Upcoming Events Report
| Bill # | Abbrev. Title | Short Description | Status | Sponsor |
| HB 1036 (Dead) | Transportation fuel/carbon | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuel. | H Env & Energy | Fitzgibbon |
| HB 1046 (Dead) | Community solar programs | Concerning community solar programs. | H Env & Energy | Bateman |
| E2SHB 1050 | Fluorinated gases | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fluorinated gases. | S Rules 2 | Fitzgibbon |
| SHB 1080 (ESSB 5083) | Capital budget 2021-2023 | Concerning the capital budget. | H Passed 3rd | Tharinger |
| SHB 1081 (SSB 5084) | State gen. obligation bonds | Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts. | H 2nd Reading | Tharinger |
| SHB 1084 (SB 5093) | Building decarbonization | Reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions by achieving greater decarbonization of residential and commercial buildings. | H Approps | Ramel |
| E3SHB 1091 (SB 5231) | Transportation fuel/carbon | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuel. | S Rules 2 | Fitzgibbon |
| HB 1093 (SB 5091) | Operating budget, 2nd supp. | Making 2019-2021 fiscal biennium second supplemental operating appropriations. | H Approps | Ormsby |
| SHB 1094 (ESSB 5092) | Operating budget | Making 2021-2023 fiscal biennium operating appropriations. | H Rules R | Ormsby |
| SHB 1103 (SB 5366) | Building materials | Improving environmental and social outcomes with the production of building materials. | H Approps | Duerr |
| HB 1125 | Energy investments | Incentivizing investment in energy conservation and efficiency measures and expanding opportunities for energy rate discounts to, among other objectives, reduce the energy burden of low-income customers and vulnerable populations. | H Env & Energy | Shewmake |
| HB 1130 | Energy supply/consumers | Concerning consumer affordability and reliability in energy supply. | H Env & Energy | Dye |
| SHB 1135 (SSB 5165) | Transp. budget 2021-2023 | Making transportation appropriations for the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium. | H Rules R | Fey |
| SHB 1204 (SB 5256) | Transp. electrification | Concerning the electrification of transportation. | H Rules R | Macri |
| HB 1280 | Greenhouse gas/facilities | Concerning greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the design of public facilities. | S Rules 2 | Ramel |
| HB 1393 | Photovoltaic module program | Delaying certain implementation dates for the photovoltaic module stewardship and takeback program. | H Spkr Signed | Shewmake |
| SHB 1406 (SB 5426) | Wealth tax | Improving the equity of Washington state’s tax code by creating the Washington state wealth tax and taxing extraordinary financial intangible assets. | H Approps | Frame |
| HB 1513 | Carbon emissions | Improving environmental health by reducing carbon emissions through increasing climate resilience and mitigating the effects of climate change by levying a carbon pollution tax, authorizing a climate finance bond program, and investing in clean economic growth. | H Env & Energy | Lekanoff |
| HB 1534 | Carbon pollution tax | Establishing a carbon pollution tax that recognizes the nature of energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries. | H Env & Energy | Shewmake |
| ESSB 5083 (SHB 1080) | Capital budget 2021-2023 | Concerning the capital budget. | H Rules | Frockt |
| SSB 5084 (SHB 1081) | State gen. obligation bonds | Concerning state general obligation bonds and related accounts. | S 2nd Reading | Frockt |
| SB 5091 (HB 1093) | Operating budget, 2nd supp. | Making 2019-2021 fiscal biennium second supplemental operating appropriations. | S Ways & Means | Rolfes |
| ESSB 5092 (SHB 1094) | Operating budget | Making 2021-2023 fiscal biennium operating appropriations. | H Passed 3rd | Rolfes |
| SB 5093 (SHB 1084) | Building decarbonization | Reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions by achieving greater decarbonization of residential and commercial buildings. | S Environment, E | Liias |
| 2SSB 5126 | Climate commitment act | Concerning the Washington climate commitment act. | S 2nd Reading | Carlyle |
| SSB 5165 (SHB 1135) | Transp. budget 2021-2023 | Making transportation appropriations for the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium. | H Passed 3rd | Hobbs |
| SB 5168 | Electric utility advisory | Concerning renewable and nonemitting resources analysis and advisory opinions. | S Environment, E | Short |
| SSB 5174 | Wind turbine blade recycling | Providing for the recycling of wind turbine blades. | S Rules X | Wilson |
| SB 5206 | Energy facility evaluation | Eliminating expedited processing of an alternative energy resource facility fueled by solar energy on certain designated lands before the energy facility site evaluation council. | S Environment, E | Warnick |
| SB 5231 (E3SHB 1091) | Transportation fuel/carbon | Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the carbon intensity of transportation fuel. | S Environment, E | Stanford |
| SB 5244 | Nuclear reactor production | Encouraging the production of advanced nuclear reactors, small modular reactors, and components through the invest in Washington act. | S Environment, E | Brown |
| SB 5256 (SHB 1204) | Transp. electrification | Concerning the electrification of transportation. | S Environment, E | Liias |
| SB 5308 | Hybrid vehicle fees | Reducing certain transportation electrification fees on hybrid vehicles. | S Transportation | Short |
| SB 5373 | Carbon pollution | Concerning carbon pollution. | S Environment, E | Lovelett |
| SB 5415 | Energy facil site eval cncl | Concerning the energy facility site evaluation council. | S Environment, E | Lovelett |