Washington Passes Renewable Energy Standard
Washington will be generating more clean, renewable energy thanks to an effective coalition, the support of UCS, and the help of our Washington activists. On November 6, 2007 Washington voters passed the Clean Energy Initiative (I-937) by a 52-48 percent margin.
Washington becomes the 21st state (plus DC) to adopt a renewable electricity standard (RES), and the second state to do so via a ballot initiative. The new RES requires the state's largest utilities to reach 15 percent renewable energy use by 2015. It also requires electric utilities to pursue low-cost energy conservation opportunities with their customers and in their communities. Based on our analysis, the successful implementation of I-937 would, by 2025, keep about 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere each year—equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the road.
UCS and our activists can claim a large role in the success of I-937. We actively participated in the policy-making, helping to draft the initiative and steering committees. We also contributed to the campaign, and were instrumental in helping the campaign raise additional funds. Finally, we completed and released an analysis showing the economic and environmental benefits of the initiative, which we featured in an ad supporting the initiative that ran in the Seattle metropolitan area for one full week leading up to the election. UCS activists collected signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and then built support for the initiative prior to the vote.
