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2006 Washington Initiative 937

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Ballot Initiative 937 (official name Initiative measure no. 937, known as I-937) is a clean energy initiative that will appear on the ballot in the November, 2006 elections in Washington. The initiative won 60.21 of the vote compared to 39.79 against, according to the "Unofficial Night Final" results posted by the King County Elections Office. [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 by 2020 and undertake cost-effective energy conservation.[2] The initiative's definition of renewable energy does not include many existing hydroelectric facilities.[3] [4] Ratepayers in Snohomish county in particular stand to lose an estimated $12-$36 million compared to an energy plan which would count hydro power as renewable.[5] Utilities which currently purchase hydro power from the BPA would not have their existing renewable energy usage count towards the initiatives 15% requirement.[6]

Precedents

Similar legislation has been 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[7]
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  
D.C.     11% 2022  
Pennsylvania     8% 2020  

Unless indicated otherwise, data are from [8]

Supporters

Supporters include the following:[9] (This list includes only names for which we have articles, organizations that represent a large number of people and high ranking elected officials.)

Elected Officials

Civic and political organizations

Health organizations

Energy and Labor

Environmental

Faith

Newspapers


Opponents

Opponents include the following:[10] (This list includes only names for which we have articles, organizations that represent a large number of people and high ranking elected officials.) Many small co-op electrical providers oppose the measure, even though it only affects utilities with greater than 25,000 customers.

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Full text of Ballot Initiative 937 (.pdf)
  3. ^ http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/11/04/100loc_a1pud001.cfm
  4. ^ http://www.snopud.com/?p=3373
  5. ^ http://www.snopud.com/?p=3373
  6. ^ http://www.snopud.com/?p=3373
  7. ^ http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/the-colorado-renewable-energy-standard-ballot-initiative.html
  8. ^ http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/state-clean-energy-maps-and-graphs.html
  9. ^ http://www.yeson937.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=1977
  10. ^ http://www.nooni937.com/Endorsements.html

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