A look at the Washington Legislature’s 2025 environmental agenda - Anlık Haber

The biggest environmental bill that could have been on the table for the 2025-2027 legislative session looks unlikely this year. It would have created a new Washington agency to be a watchdog of the state’s oil industry.

Without the impetus of climate hawk Gov. Jay Inslee, the Legislature will shift from trying to tame carbon pollution to a list of less paradigm-shifting goals.

Meanwhile, environmental interests hope that the revenue from Washington’s 2-year-old cap-and-invest program earmarked for climate programs does not get transferred to the general fund help with a project budget shortfall of an estimated $12 billion over four years.

Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, chair of the House Energy & Environment Committee, said that because voters overwhelmingly approved Inslee’s programs to combat climate change while simultaneously pumping more money into the state’s coffers, the current climate programs just need to be tweaked while the Legislature concentrates on other environmental issues, including boosting recycling programs.

However, one major plank of Inslee’s master plan to economically combat climate change remains unaddressed. Last year, former Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-White Center, introduced <a href=”https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=6052&Year=2023&Initiative=False”>Senate Bill 6052</a>, which would have created a new Washington agency to watchdog the state’s oil industry.

Modeled after a<a href=”https://www.energy.ca.gov/about/division-petroleum-market-oversight”> new California office</a>, the proposed agency would have collected a massive amount of financial and industrial data from various branches of Washington’s oil industry, including its five refineries and a complex supply chain.

It would have had subpoena power, and would have confidentially referred suspected violations of state law to the Washington Attorney General’s Office. It would have reported its observations and conclusions to the governor’s office, other state agencies and the Legislature.

An environmental bill designed to set up a watchdog agency to oversee Washington’s oil industry will not be part of the new legislative session. Marathon’s refinery near Anacortes, seen here in 2024, is one of the state’s five oil refineries. (Grant Hindsley for Cascade PBS)

Nguyen’s bill died in committee last February because of the estimated $30 million expense of setting up the cybersecurity that would be required to collect data. Monitoring oil industry finances includes collecting and analyzing a massive amount of confidential proprietary information, and in a non-budget session like 2024, the $30 million was not available. Nguyen also wanted to refine the legislation some more, intending to revive it this year.

Last month, newly elected Gov. Bob Ferguson selected Nguyen as his new commerce department director. That means a yet-to-be-determined legislator will have to spearhead this bill.

Meanwhile, prior to joining the new Ferguson administration, Nguyen had already decided to postpone reviving the proposal for at least a year. The only similar state petroleum market oversight agency in the nation is California’s, which opened in mid-2023. Nguyen wanted to study how the California program evolved before taking another crack at creating a Washington division of petroleum market oversight.

“I want to learn from their mistakes,” Nguyen said.

Last October, California Gov. <a href=”https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/10/14/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-prevent-gas-price-spikes-and-save-californians-money/”>Gavin Newsom signed a new law</a> that requires the state’s refineries to keep reserves to keep oil flowing whenever a refinery shuts down for maintenance. California’s Division of Petroleum Market Oversight concluded that the lack of oil reserves during maintenance shutdowns have led to California’s spikes in gasoline prices.

Meanwhile, Doglio sees recycling as being the biggest environmental issue in the upcoming session.

In 2023, House Democrats introduced a bill that would have required producers of paper products, packaging and some beverage containers to fund an organization to manage wastes from those materials. That bill stalled prior to a 2023 House floor vote and remained dormant in 2024. In their criticisms, numerous opponents — including the food, paper and business interests — cited logistics, complexities and the effects on small businesses. A streamlined version of this bill — <a href=”https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=1150&year=2025″>House Bill 1150</a> — has been introduced for the 2025 session.

Doglio and others have identified other potential upcoming environmental bills, including:

Possibly tweaking the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC). In Washington, solar and wind turbine developers have the choice of getting the appropriate government — the state or the county — to approve their project. With the EFSEC route, the body of representatives from several state agencies makes a recommendation to the governor for his final decision.

Controversies surfaced with EFSEC twice in 2024. EFSEC recommended that Inslee approve a halved version of a 1,150-megawatt wind turbine farm in the Horse Heaven Hills just south of Kennewick. <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/briefs/2024/11/gov-inslee-approves-plans-was-largest-wind-turbine-farm”>Inslee sent that recommendation </a>back to EFSEC, asking the Council to change its recommendation from half to roughly three-quarters of the original request. Many Tri-Citians oppose the turbines because they would clutter an otherwise-pristine landscape, plus threaten nests of endangered ferruginous hawks. Tri-City interests are exploring litigation on this matter.

Meanwhile, <a href=”https://energycentral.com/news/wautoma-solar-proposal-moves-ahead-inslee-tours-yakima-county-solar-project”>EFSEC recently overruled</a> Benton County’s claim that its zoning rules prevent a proposed Wautoma solar farm from setting up. Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, has<a href=”https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=5015&year=2025″> introduced a bill</a> to take the governor out of EFSEC’s decision-making process.

Farmers dealing with fuel exemptions. Cap-and-invest exemptions on surcharges on fuel intended for farmers are complicated and <a href=”https://www.columbian.com/news/2024/aug/26/washington-farmers-want-their-promised-carbon-pricing-exemptions/”>have baffled</a> many farm and trucking operations. Last session, the Legislature allocated $30 million to help farmers who can’t get the exemptions. The Washington Farm Bureau is worried that whatever is left of that $30 million will be vacuumed up to deal with that predicted overall $12 billion budget shortfall.

Fusion. Puget Sound has five nuclear-fusion-related ventures. These are Helion, which is trying to provide fusion power to Microsoft by 2028; Zap Energy and Avalanche, which are also working on fusion reactors; and Kyoto Fusioneering and ExoFusion, which are developing fusion-related technologies. Rep. Clyde Shavers, D-Clinton, has introduced a bill to <a href=”https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?billnumber=1018&year=2025″>help regulate that fledgling industry</a>.

Other potential bills. These include finding money to address Washington’s defective culverts, which are hampering salmon passages to and from the Pacific. Other issues that could be on the table include improving power transmission lines to deal with the increasing number of data centers in Washington, providing incentives to improve battery storage, and dealing <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment/2023/09/could-selling-sewage-save-salish-sea”>with sewage plants polluting Puget Sound</a>.

Topics: <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment-0″ hreflang=”en”>Environment</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/politics-0″ hreflang=”en”>politics</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/washington-legislature” hreflang=”en”>Washington Legislature</a>

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