TUMWATER — Supporters of a measure that would require continued natural gas service in Washington say they have enough signatures to get to the ballot in November.
Initiative 2066, if passed, would explicitly protect the use of natural gas and repeal parts of a law passed last session that was intended to help the state’s largest utility, Puget Sound Energy, chart a path with the Washington Public Utilities and Transportation Commission to eventually transition away from natural gas service.
If the petition is accepted, it would set up a major electoral battle this fall in Washington over environmental issues. The natural gas measure would dovetail with Initiative 2117, which would repeal the state’s system for limiting and reducing carbon emissions.
As of Tuesday afternoon, at the Secretary of State’s office in Tumwater, supporters have filed about 431,000 signatures, collected from voters in less than two months ahead of the July 5 deadline. Supporters plan to submit another batch of signatures later this week.
The petition needs to collect approximately 324,500 valid signatures to be accepted. Signatures must be verified by the Secretary of State’s office.
Let’s Go Washington, the group funded by Redmond businessman Brian Heywood that is backing a series of initiatives this year, including the quest to repeal the carbon market, has thrown its support behind the gas measure and backed a statewide signature-gathering campaign.
Heywood said the initiative is a collaboration between Let’s Go Washington, the Washington Hospitality Association and the Building Industry Association of Washington, which funded the initiative’s signature collection effort.
Both organizations echoed concerns from restaurant owners, grocery and hotel operators and builders that natural gas, which is primarily methane, is critical to their operations and to keeping prices affordable for consumers.
“We have formed a partnership that is a model of how citizens respond when the legislature oversteps its powers,” Heywood said.
Dan Deva, a partner at Mayuri Foods, a South Asian grocery store in Redmond, said his stores use natural gas to power kitchen appliances, refrigerators and the grocery store’s heating and cooling system. Converting to all-electric would cost $700,000 to $800,000, he said.
“Initiative 2066 is very simple,” said Greg Lane, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington. “It protects natural gas service for every home and business that currently has it, and second, it protects the freedom of every Washingtonian to choose the energy source they want to use for their homes and businesses.”
During this year’s legislative session, lawmakers passed House Bill 1589, which aims to help Puget Sound Energy work with the Washington Public Utilities and Transportation Commission to comply with previous climate legislation, including the state’s plan to limit and reduce carbon emissions and decarbonize its electricity supply.
While the law does not explicitly ban natural gas, supporters of the initiative say they want to protect consumer choice to use natural gas as the legislature pushes utilities and ratepayers to electrify their grids. Natural gas, supporters say, is cheap and reliable, and the current electrical grid is not prepared for increased use.
Lane pointed out the higher cost of an all-electric system when building a new home, for example. Electrical appliances are more expensive, and the cost of building the electrical infrastructure is also higher than running a gas line into the home, he said.
If passed, the initiative would repeal provisions of the law, including assessing electrification potential in geographic areas and achieving cost-effective electrification for natural gas customers.
House Bill 1589 included a provision that would have allowed the utility to potentially merge its natural gas and electric customers into a single rate plan, though PSE has Mr Lane said the change was unnecessary and would take “more than several years” to make. The initiative includes provisions to repeal that provision.
The initiative would also target recently passed energy efficiency mandates that he says aim to make it nearly impossible to install fossil fuel appliances in new buildings.
Sen. Joe Nguyen, a white, center Democrat who helped champion House Bill 1589, said the initiative would lock low-income and industrial methane users into even higher rates as wealthier ratepayers shift to electrifying their homes and buildings. The bill gives a state utility the opportunity to start planning “thoughtfully” for that trend, he said.
“Even though people have concerns about the possibility of using methane gas in the future, which is not banned, and the costs associated with that, this (initiative), fundamentally, is poorly drafted,” he said, adding that the initiative appears to conflate changes made by the Washington Building Code Board with the PSE bill.
Nguyen also stressed that even under the most aggressive electrification plans, which the law ultimately did not allow, natural gas would never have been cut off overnight for customers and would include a multi-year planning process with the public utility commission.
Climate Solutions, which testified in support of the PSE bill, also said in a statement that the initiative would be a “major misstep on our path to a clean energy future” and that existing laws are essential to keeping utility bills “as low as possible.”
Caitlin Krenn, director of climate and clean energy at Washington Conservation Action, said the move was “the latest in a series of misleading and destructive initiatives” supported by Heywood.
“I-2066 would take away choices from communities, jeopardize rebate programs that help families and small business owners finance building renovations, repeal common-sense measures that make homes and workplaces more energy efficient and healthier, and erode clean air protections,” Krenn said. “Over time, this measure will increase energy costs for Washington’s workers.”