2006 Washington Initiative 937

Ballot Initiative 937 (official name Initiative measure no. 937, known as I-937) was a successful clean energy initiative in the US state of Washington, appearing on the ballot in the November 2006 elections. It passed with 52 percent of the vote [1].

Content of the proposal

The initiative proposes to require large utilities to obtain 15% of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind but excluding hydro by 2020 with incremental steps of 3% by 2012 and 9% by 2016 along with undertaking cost-effective energy conservation.

Precedents

Similar legislation was enacted in at least 20 other states including the following. (The table is sorted by date and then by descending percentage. I-937 is included in bold for easy comparison.)

State	Name	Enacted	Percentage	By	Comments/Source
Maine			30%	2000
Arizona			1.1%	2007
Massachusetts			4%	2009
Connecticut			10%	2010
Iowa			~10%	2010
New Mexico			10%	2011
New York			24%	2013
Nevada			20%	2015
Minnesota			19%	2015
Montana			15%	2015
Colorado	Amendment 37	2004	10%	2015	First ballot initiative
Texas			~4.2%	2015	5.88 GW
California			20%	2017
Rhode Island			16%	2019
Delaware			10%	2019
Maryland			7.5%	2019
New Jersey			22.5%	2020
Hawaii			20%	2020
Washington	I-937		15%	2020
Washington, D.C.			11%	2022
Pennsylvania			8%	2020

Unless indicated otherwise, data are from

Supporters

Supporters included the following:

Elected officials

• U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray
• U.S. Congressmen Jay Inslee, Adam Smith, Norm Dicks and Jim McDermott
• State Senators Luke Esser (R), Dave Schmidt (R), Debbie Regala (D), Bill Finkbeiner (R), Erik Poulsen (D), Karen Fraser (D), Craig Pridemore (D), Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D), Karen Keiser (D)
• State Representatives Toby Nixon (R), Zach Hudgins (D), Brian J. Sullivan (D), Fred Jarrett (R), Pat Sullivan (D), Geoff Simpson (D), Rodney Tom (D), Dave Upthegrove (D), Brendan Williams (D)
• King County Executive Ron Sims
• Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels

Civic and political organizations

• League of Women Voters
• Kittitas Valley League of Women voters
• Washington State Democrats
• King County Young Democrats
• Republicans for Environmental Protection, Washington Chapter
• Green Party of Washington State
• Peace Action for Washington

Health organizations

• American Lung Association
• American Cancer Society
• Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility

Energy and labor

• Washington Public Utility Districts Association
• Washington State Labor Council
• United Steelworkers
• SEIU Washington State Council
• Apollo Alliance
• Blue-Green Alliance

Environmental

• Denis Hayes, Founder of Earth Day
• Audubon Society Washington
• The Mountaineers
• Sierra Club - Cascade Chapter
• Washington Conservation Voters
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• National Wildlife Federation

Faith

• Earth Ministry
• Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington
• Washington Association of Churches
• Church Council of Greater Seattle

Newspapers

• The Seattle P-I
• The Olympian
• The Tacoma News Tribune
• The Stranger
• Washington Daily

Opponents

Opponents included many small co-op electrical providers (even though the initiative affects only utilities with greater than 25,000 customers) as well as the following:

• Big Bend Electrical Cooperative
• Boeing
• Boise Cascade
• Chamber of Commerces: Bellevue, Greater Seattle, Kelso-Longview, Pasco, Spokane Regional, Tacoma-Pierce County, Wenatchee Valley, West Richland Area
• Modern Electric Water Company
• National Association of Manufacturers
• Peninsula Light Company
• PUDs of Benton, Cowlitz, Franklin, Lewis, and Mason County.
• Representatives Brian Blake (D) and Dean Takko
• Senators Jean Berkey (D) and Mark L. Doumit (D)
• Snohomish County PUD commissioner Kathy Vaughn
• Tanner Electric Cooperative
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• Washington Farm Bureau
• Washington Rurual Electric Cooperative Association
• Weyerhaeuser

External links

• No on I-937
• Washington’s Primary Energy Consumption by Source (.doc)