WA State Senate passes 100% Clean Electricity Bill

State Leaders Urged to Remove Harmful Provisions

Environment Washington

Olympia, WA – The Washington State Senate today passed SSB 5116, Washington’s 100% Clean Electricity Bill, which is legislation that requires utilities to obtain 100 percent of their electricity from carbon-free energy sources. The bill features key near-term targets to eliminate coal from the grid by 2025 and requires utilities to be 80 percent carbon-free by 2030.

Environment Washington Director Bruce Speight issued the following statement on the Senate Vote:

“We applaud the Washington State Senate for passing the 100% Clean Electricity Bill. It certainly takes us another step toward making the Evergreen state cleaner and healthier.

Unfortunately, the Senate bill includes a number of provisions that undercut the transition to 100 percent clean electricity, including a categorical exemption for a carbon-emitting gas-fired power plant and the adoption of language that arbitrarily defines all biomass energy as non-emitting when most biomass has net emissions and is not clean. The bill also includes a cost cap that could jeopardize needed progress toward clean, renewable energy. We urge the WA House of Representatives to remove these bad provisions.

It’s 2019. We have the technology, the know-how and the power to capture clean, abundant renewable energy from the sun and the wind. We can do it more efficiently and cheaply than ever before. Yet we’re still producing, consuming and wasting energy in ways that do lasting damage to our environment and our health.

Polls show that eight in ten Washingtonians want clean energy. Every day, we see more evidence that an economy powered by renewable energy is within our reach, and a strong 100% Clean Electricity Bill will help us get there and deliver what the people want.

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Environment Washington is a statewide, membership-based environmental advocacy organization.