(The Center Square) – Washington residents and businesses reliant on Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility provider, for natural gas could have it discontinued under a revised version of a bill that cleared the state House of Representatives last month.
House Bill 1589 introduced last year by Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, would have had PSE barred from offering natural gas to new residential or commercial buildings starting in July 2023 and guaranteed the utility a certain ownership percentage of its clean energy portfolio.
An amended version of that bill cleared the House in a 52-44 vote and is now in the Senate Committee on Environment, Energy & Technology, where a striking amendment proposed by Chair Joe Nguyen, D-White Center, is under consideration. Under the current version, the natural gas ban has been removed along with the ownership percentage guarantee.
While proponents of the bill say it would enable PSE to meet the state’s various carbon reduction and clean energy goals, critics warn that in some ways it’s even worse than an explicit ban with a specific timeline.
Under the proposed striking amendment, Section 10 of the bill would include the following language: “A large combination utility’s obligation to serve may be met by providing a customer with nonemitting energy including, but not limited to, renewable natural gas, green hydrogen, thermal energy networks, electricity, or other sources as described in an integrated system plan approved by the commission.”
Speaking in support of the bill at its Wednesday public hearing, Matt Miller with PSE said “the bulk of this bill is a planning bill” that “provides more transparency into our decision-making.”
However, Brent Ludeman said the bill would constitute a “regressive tax on consumers.”
Ludeman is a lobbyist for the Building Industry Association of Washington.
“Let’s call a spade a ‘spade,’” he said.
Also critical of the bill was Brandon Housekeeper, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Western Energy Consumers. He told the committee that the bill’s provisions consolidating PSE’s planning under the state Utilities and Transportation Commission “might be good for the workload of the UTC, but it’s not necessarily good for the ratepayer. UTC just a few years ago used to be an economic regulator. We no longer ask them to do that. We ask them to be a societal regulator.”
Citing the recent cold snap that promoted PSE to request ratepayers reduce their energy use, Scott Hazelgrove with the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties said that “under its current system Puget Sound Energy is struggling to be able to run its utilities in a way that is dependable for consumers.”
The bill is not currently scheduled for any further committee action.
