A big win in Seattle this week, but that’s not all that’s going on.
Seattle
The City Council unanimously approved the Building Emissions Performance Standard! This sets a requirement and a timeline for commercial buildings larger than 20,000 square feet to decarbonize. Rulemaking, where many of the nitty gritty decisions will be made, is scheduled to start in June 2024 and complete in 2025. You can sign up for more information.
State
Governor Inslee unveiled his climate priorities for the 2024 Legislative Session. They include these bills:
- Oil industry accountability. Transparency to how oil companies set prices, and protection from price gouging. UTC would collect information from companies and make a public report on it. The same bill would also provide some public protection from greenwashing to prevent companies from making false claims about climate commitments.
- Link CCA carbon allowance market to California and Quebec marketplace. Reduce cost of compliance and increase price stability. Linkage could happen in late 2025 if approved.
- Phase out Puget Sound Energy’s gas (methane) business. This would “set a pathway to transition PSE gas customers to zero-emission alternatives while maintaining grid reliability and affordability, particularly for low income customers”.
And the draft budget includes these funding priorities for spending $941M in CCA revenue:
- $200 utility credit for 750,000 households to offset high oil and gas prices,
- transitioning diesel school buses to electric
- grants for schools to replace old heating and cooling systems with energy efficient upgrades
- salmon and fish passage projects
- state highway electric vehicle chargers
- workforce development
- clean energy transition for state fleets & buildings
Elsewhere
Massachusetts state utility regulators issued a ruling that establishes a framework for shifting from methane (natural) gas to clean energy for heating and other uses in order to address climate change. The article notes: “At least 11 other states (California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington) as well as Washington, D.C., have ongoing regulatory cases that are exploring the future of natural gas.” For Washington, this may be referring to HB 1589, which the legislature is expected to pick up again this year, and is one of the Governor’s priorities.