OPINION: Heed voters’ concerns in move away from natural gas

This editorial was published in The Seattle Times.

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On Election Day, voters pushed back on legislative and regulatory overreach by approving Initiative 2066, a wide-ranging measure that protects the availability of natural gas as an energy source.

The Times editorial board encouraged voters to approve the initiative while urging them to retain the state’s fledgling climate response law by rejecting another initiative, I-2117. The reason is that lawmakers failed to consider fully the uncertain future of the Northwest energy grid as the state makes ambitious and necessary moves to limit polluting emissions. They also ignored the challenges laws and regulations against natural gas would pose on everything from housing affordability to restaurant business costs.

Even if Initiative 2066’s opponents attempt to challenge its constitutionality in court, state lawmakers should draw a lesson from its passage. As they examine Washington’s climate goals, they need to recommit to ensuring all Washingtonians have a future with a reliable and affordable supply of energy to their homes and businesses.

The events that led to 2066 show a majority of voters do not trust lawmakers’ current plan to deliver on that promise. Already, Gov. Jay Inslee and the Legislature have mandated a reduction of greenhouse gas-emitting sources of electricity while electric vehicles, heat pumps and other demands are taxing the state’s electricity grid. Factor in energy-thirsty data centers and there’s a recipe for higher energy bills, or, even worse, the prospect of rolling blackouts during peak load times like cold snaps and heat waves.

A clean energy future will need more electricity, full stop.

Intermittent renewables like wind and solar also won’t be able to provide a 1-to-1 replacement for on-demand fossil fuel sources. This transition will take time. No wonder many of Washington’s 1.3 million natural gas customers are eager to defend their existing energy pipeline of gas.

Under the Clean Energy Transformation Act, passed in 2019, utilities are barred from using electricity generated from coal by the end of next year. That means the last coal power plant, in Centralia, will shut down. Also, utilities will not be able to import coal-generated power.

Today, coal accounts for about 9% of electricity in Washington’s grid. (At Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility, it’s about 23%.)

The transition off this dirtier source of power is the right move. But it’s not because utilities have added a sufficient number of clean-energy power plants to offset the loss of coal. The state’s own energy policy office expects Washington’s natural gas power plants will be called upon to simply increase their output to satisfy demand. That is hardly the transition to a cleaner fuel source that misguided lawmakers were hoping for.

Thus, if at this point lawmakers push residents and businesses off natural gas for personal use, the result is likely to be more natural gas burned to make electricity — defeating the purpose in the short term.

Concern for reliable energy fueled a repeal that gathered 560,000 signatures in 50 days earlier this year, placing 2066 on the ballot. Of all things, it was a planning bill pursued by Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility, where ruling Democrats in the Legislature underestimated voters’ energy adequacy and affordability concerns.

At first, the initial aim of House Bill 1589 actually included cutting off any new natural gas hookups in the utility’s coverage area. Though that provision was removed, it made the legislation a lightning rod. Second, the bill’s late-night passage in the House and sloppy presentation in the Senate added additional ammunition for opposition Republicans and those upset with new regulations, including building codes that all but banned natural gas in new home construction.

Lawmakers must work to keep both the flow of energy — and the price of it — stable in the years ahead. The laws they’ve passed to meet climate goals are important milestones in the fight against climate change. But they cannot risk that stability. To do so means betraying the trust of Washingtonians who expect steady, affordable energy sources. Their vote on 2066 demonstrates loudly the Legislature’s need to thoroughly and delicately debate and plan the offramp from natural gas, and ensure Washington’s energy needs are ready for it when the time comes.

TNS