Washington House Passes Clean-Fuels Legislation Sought by Inslee

by Joseph O’Sullivan and Hal Bernton (Seattle Times) Washington House Democrats approved clean-fuels legislation Tuesday night after overcoming fierce Republican opposition that was expressed in an hourslong floor debate.

House Bill 1110, which would lower the greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels, passed 53 to 43. After the vote, sponsor and state Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, called it “the most important climate bill the House has ever passed.”

Gov. Jay Inslee and some lawmakers are also proposing to phase out fossil fuels in power production and hydrofluorocarbons, boost electric vehicles and increase energy conservation standards in buildings. Inslee is running for president with an almost singular focus on climate change.

Foes of clean-fuel standards — including the oil industry — contend the policy will raise fuel prices, piling what amounts to a new tax on top of a gas tax that already is second-highest in the nation. They also argue that the policy won’t ultimately be a cost-effective way to reduce emissions.

Much of Tuesday night’s debate revolved around how the bill might impact Washington’s rural areas. Republican lawmakers argued the proposal would cost jobs.

But Rep. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, argued the bill could help rural regions by allowing industries like pulp and paper mills to convert waste products into clean fuels.car

“So I’ll make no bones, this is a job-creator for my district,” said Chapman, who voted in favor of the bill.

Clean-fuels legislation seeks to reduce the “carbon intensity” of fuels. That is defined as the amount of greenhouse emissions emitted through the full life cycle of a fuel’s production — or extraction — as well as combustion. This calculation involves rating carbon emissions of hundreds of different fuels.

HB 1110 would require the state Department of Ecology to establish a clean-fuels program that, over time, would reduce consumption of traditional gasoline and diesel, as alternatives ranging from biogas to electricity come into greater use.

By 2028, the bill would restrict the carbon content in transportation fuels to 10 percent below their 2017 levels. By 2035, those fuels would have to be 20 percent beneath the 2017 levels. The proposal excludes fuels used by aircraft, locomotives and vessels, as well as electricity and exported fuel.

(Catherine) Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western State Petroleum Association, said her organization is more open to the idea of a carbon tax or possibly a cap-and-trade program, if it were well-designed. READ MORE

Excerpt from DTN The Progressive Farmer: HB 1110 explicitly names biodiesel as a fuel that would fit the proposal, "biodiesel fuel that is not derived from crops raised on land cleared from old growth or first growth forests; or biomass energy."

It is unclear whether or if ethanol or other fuels would qualify under the state's proposal. The bill indicates state officials have looked to LCFS programs in California and Oregon as examples. However, in recent years the state of California has met the vast majority of its low-carbon transportation fuel requirements with ethanol.

"The legislature finds that rapid innovations in low-carbon transportation technologies, including electric vehicles and clean transportation fuels, are at the threshold of widespread commercial deployment," the bill says.

"In order to help prompt the use of clean fuels, other states have successfully implemented programs that reduce the carbon intensity of their transportation fuels. Without disruptions to fuel markets or significant impacts to the costs of transportation fuels, California and Oregon have both implemented low-carbon fuel standards that are similar to the program created in this act. Washington state has extensively studied the potential impact of a clean fuels program, and most projections show that a low-carbon fuel standard would decrease greenhouse gas and conventional air pollutant emissions, while positively impacting the state's economy." READ MORE