McCoy’s TEC committee will examine ‘green power’ in hearing

Key House panel is taking a look at renewable-energy implementation of I-937

OLYMPIA – Chaired by state Rep. John McCoy, the House Technology, Energy & Communications Committee will receive the year’s first formal progress report on the implementation of Initiative 937 in a public hearing next Monday afternoon, Jan. 19.

The “green power” initiative was passed by voters more than two years ago. It directs that electric utilities with 25,000 or more customers must meet specific targets for energy conservation and the use of renewable-energy resources.

McCoy, D-Tulalip, said today (Wednesday, Jan. 14) that he wants to find “fair and realistic strategies to make the initiative work in light of current energy markets and renewable-production capabilities.”

The Snohomish County lawmaker added that two key questions need answering: (1) How much renewable energy should utilities be providing, and (2) Where can the utilities purchase renewable energy?

McCoy has spent the past several months working on the issue with consumer and industry representatives. He said he wants legislation that “spurs renewable-energy projects (such as wind farms and biomass) and promotes investments in energy conservation at the utility and consumer level.”

“Renewable-energy requirements are laid out in the voter-approved state law,” he explained. “Before I-937, electric utilities didn’t have to meet any specific targets either for energy conservation or for use of renewable resources.”

Terms of the initiative mandate that by January 2010, an electric utility must identify its achievable cost-effective conservation potential through 2019. The utility must update this assessment at least every two years.

Each utility is also required to meet specific targets for using eligible renewable resources to produce electricity. These specific targets are stated as a percentage of the utility’s load, which in turn refers to the total amount of electricity the utility sold (in that particular year) to its retail customers. The utilities must also meet energy-conservation targets starting in 2010.

Some interested observers maintain that implementation of the initiative has stumbled against a number of technical barriers. "We need to look for ways to help folks negotiate these barriers both in a way that meets the demands of the initiative – and in a way that maintains a sense of fairness for the parties involved in the process,” McCoy said. He added that any revisions to the initiative will have to reflect trade-offs, such as higher renewable-energy targets coupled with expanded resource and geographic eligibility. But he also noted that “we want to keep changes to a minimum. Our goal certainly isn’t to tinker with the initiative just for the sake of tinkering.”

The public hearing in McCoy’s committee will start at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room B, which is located on the first floor of the John L. O’Brien Building here on the Capitol Campus.