(The Center Square) – In the final hours of the 2026 legislative session, majority Democrats pushed through controversial legislation that creates a Washington state transmission authority within the Commerce Department to help coordinate and finance long-distance electric lines across the state.
Senate Bill 6355, sponsored by Sen. Victoria Hunt, D-Issaquah, is aimed at speeding up Washington’s ambitious clean energy laws, some of the most ambitious in the country.
Washington state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act, passed in 2019 by majority Democrats calls for a carbon-free electric grid by 2045 and if the state cannot keep up with expectations of the law, lawmakers are expected to find another way to build out the transmission network, or downsize their goals.
Skeptics, including most Republicans in the Legislature, argue creating another government agency is the last thing we need.
“The way transmission is done now, it’s done through private sector companies,” said Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy in a interview Thursday with The Center Square. “So, it’s either private sector utilities, or Bonneville Power. So, you know, why do we need to make a new bureaucracy when we’ve heard all year long about the budget, the budget, the budget, the budget, and we don’t have enough money?”
Dye said her constituents don’t want more wind and solar blighting the landscape when the power generation they offer is minimal much of the year when it’s too cold and cloudy for solar or too calm for wind turbines to turn.
“The motivation here is to build enough infrastructure that they can incentivize more wind and solar being built in Eastern Washington. Most of the transmission will be in Eastern Washington, and it suggests that they’ll be needing between 2,000 and 3,000 miles of new transmission,” Dye said.
During a Feb 26 Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing, the first two testifiers urged lawmakers to reject or dramatically modify the bill.
“More transmission lines will mean a greater risk of utility caused wildfires, and fire liability and risk needs to be a greater part of this transmission discussion,” said Matt Doumit with the Washington Forest Protection Association. “The transmission corridor roads aren’t held to the same high environmental standards that forest roads are, but we feel that they should be required to protect salmon and water quality to the same extent that we have to.”
John Rothlin with Avista Group said the bill misses the mark in getting at the real issue.
“Which is the extraordinary time in siting and permitting,” said Rothlin, adding the state would be better off expediting the pre-construction phase of transmission development, which could be done he suggested without a whole new state agency.
Dye told The Center Square she was pleased that some of her amendments were included ahead of final passage, including a change to the makeup of the agency so more members will represent central and Eastern Washington counties where transmission lines will be located.
Rep. Alex Ramel, D-Bellingham, spoke in support of the bill ahead of final passage Thursday on the House floor.
“We’re seeing substantial need for new electricity and just as important, our need to move that electricity from where it’s produced to where that demand occurs in our communities and our businesses,” Ramel said.
Dye said she is very concerned about so much authority being given to a new state bureaucracy.
“This bill should have come through energy and environment [committee] and we should have been able to have a consequential conversation in a long session where all of the stakeholders would be involved,” Dye said. “You know, one of the things that really troubled me about it was that when I reached out to the counties that would be affected by having these transmission corridors, they were not aware that this bill was even being considered and what it did.”
On final passage in the House, three Republicans voted in support of the bill and one Democrat voted against the measure for a vote of 32 to 17 for approval.
As of Monday afternoon, the bill has not yet been signed into law by Gov. Ferguson.
