State lawmakers took another step forward Tuesday on banning natural gas in Washington.
House Bill 1589, which failed to clear the legislature last year, is now getting a second look, with a revised version passing the House Tuesday by a 52-45 vote.
The bill would ban any gas company that serves more than 500,000 customers — specifically, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) — from connecting new natural gas lines to new residential or commercial buildings — with limited exemptions for certain manufacturing, medical care, correctional, and military facilities. PSE would also no longer be required to provide natural gas service to existing customers, which state law currently mandates.
The bill says the ban applies to any new construction after June 30th, 2023. If approved, it would take effect immediately, due to an emergency clause included in the measure.
On the House floor, the bill’s primary sponsor Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, said this version “has tools that help to protect ratepayers and increases transparency. Rather than looking at their gas system and their electric system separately, they’ll be able to look at the system as an energy system.”
She acknowledged the bill is not perfect but said it has marked changes from the original measure, based on feedback from stakeholders.
Among them: a section concerning the ban on future natural gas was left blank. Doglio says that is to “continue the discussion about PSE’s obligation to serve natural gas as we approach 2050.”
State lawmakers previously adopted a target of slashing energy consumption in new construction by 70% by 2031. And by 2050, in order to achieve Washington’s climate target of economy-wide carbon neutrality, buildings should not be producing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Numerous builders and developers are fiercely opposed to the idea— saying consumers have a right to choose their energy source.
“Not even two weeks have passed since thousands of Washington families fought bitter cold winter weather causing PSE to ask them to curb their energy use to reduce strain on the grid. Removing natural gas as a source of heating homes and water will cause our electrical grid to fail,” Greg Lane, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), said.
Amid a historic cold snap the weekend of Jan. 13, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) on Saturday requested its customers reduce use of both natural gas and electricity. A spokesperson said at the time “the extreme cold facing the region has utilities experiencing higher energy use than forecast” and PSE needed to reduce strain on the grid.
PSE also alerted 260,000 customers of a “flex event” on Jan. 12 that occurred for four hours in the afternoon and evening due to energy demands related to the cold weather. Customers enrolled in Flex Smartallow PSE to automatically lower the thermostat during the flex events.
Lane and other builders say this proves the infrastructure to handle a natural gas ban simply isn’t there.
Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima Valley, says in the newer development where he lives, “homes are basically forced into heat pumps to comply with building mandates that currently exist.”
And while that may seem like a good thing in Olympia, because heat pumps tend to work okay over here, in places where you have naturally varying temperatures between winter and summer heat pumps can’t keep up.”
Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, chimed in, saying families living in the Puget Sound region struggling with increased housing and transportation costs will “now pay substantially more over time on their utility bills” and said the plan to fully electrify is insecure and unstable.
1 comment:
Maybe if they are successful in banning natural gas in all the liberal states, the price of natural gas will crater and reduce our heating costs in the conservative states.
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