Well, big stuff happens when you go on vacation. Here’s what I can glean from 3,000 miles away: The state Senate bill I’ve been following all session—the one that supporters like Sen. Chris Marr (D-6, Spokane) say will “amend” the voter-approved renewable energy initiative (I-937) and that Greens say will “gut” I-937—got tabled in the House appropriations committee on Friday.
The original Senate bill had been made more acceptable to Greens with a compromise bill that passed the House technology committee two weeks ago, but once it got to Appropriations, chair Rep. Jeannie Darneille (D-27, Tacoma) said she simply didn’t have the support of her members to pass it.
Sen. Marr, the bill’s original sponsor, reportedly sat in on the appropriations hearing to watch over his House colleagues. Darneille has a bill over in the Senate to help felons who have served their time to get their voting rights back. We’ll see if Senate leaders take vengeance by killing her bill. (Darneille’s bill passed the House last month 53-43, and it’s currently in the Senate Rules committee.)
The I-937 bill could always get resurrected in budget talks (and certainly, that could come in the form of the Senate version which was not acceptable to environmentalists.)
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The house was working on this and other bills till after midnight Sat.. Regarding climate change it looked like the effort was to combine several bills, though I am not clear how that all ended.
Too bad the Democrats in the state leg have tons of courage to kill initiatives supporting the environment and reducing class size, but don’t have the guts to stand up against Tim Eyman.
Jon–
I’m confused…aren’t you KLOWNS in charge??
Jeannie Darneille kicks ass.
Had the thing passed and became law we would have launched (and passed) an initiative changing it back to the original 937 rules.
This whole thing has been a giant waste of time and goodwill on the part of the state legislature.
i-937 caters to the wind companies. its all about money and 5840 tries to save some of our broke asses from getting bent over by these wind guys. jesus you people are fucking stupid.
Oh Fuck! Mr Cynical has found publicola. Give up now Josh. Your blog is about to go horsesass. All you need id Puddypud to put the final nail in your coffin.
I-728, I-732, I-937 ignore those initiatives because obviously the public didn’t know what they were voting on.
I-695, I-747 overturned in court? Call a special session. Alert the media. The public’s will is being.
I guess the Legislators will only kiss a horse’s ass.
Update: Jeannie Darneille and the other House dinos (democrats in name only) folded to Senators Eva Brown and pony-boy Chrissy Marr and approved the House version of 5840 during a surprise emergency session this afternoon. The strategy is obvious: Pass something/anything in the House, then take it back to the Senate where exposed-as-phony “liberal” Senators like Murray and McDermott have shown they’ll suck the licks of their utility and big-business backers, even if it means sacrificing the lives of their and other people’s grandchildren.
It’s clean what will happen: Whatever comes over from the House, Eva and her dem blackshirts will reject and force a conference committee in which those who care about other people and the world we inhabit cannot win. Then Eva and Krissy and Frankie and Murrie and McDermie can collect their campaign-financing bootie and lie to their own children about what they’ve done.
If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now: This political system cannot and will not save us. A majority of our politicians of any party are the cheapest of whores. believe and follow them and condemn your children to death or worse.
So maybe, Jeannie Darneille dosen’t kick ass kicks ass after all.
There’s a ton of smart, cool, electable, progressives in Tacoma. It sounds like it’s time to find someone to run against her.
And again, this a total waste of time on the part of the state legislature. We can (and probably will) redo anything they undo.
Frank and others-
Actaully, there is another possibility of what is happening here. It may be that a compromise is reached between the Senate and Gov Gregoire, who is pushing I 937 as a concept with slight short term modifications. These slight modifications of I-937 allow for more consideration of the green nature of hydroelectric so we don’t end up paying through the nose for wind and solar in the short term while our own hydro is sold to Cali and other states at immense profits, and then our own rate payers don’t get reemed and are more protected in the short run as we transition to green power.
Just a thought on what may be the actual facts. the reality iss that all initiatives are written in black and white and are very rarely good policy without some modifications.
And yes, I agree that the leg should get a backbone and attack the damage by Timmy Eye-boy, and put government back in the hands of the majority and take it away from the tyranny of the minority and the just say no to everything crowd. But the fact they are not doing that doesn’t mean they are wrong here.
@11
We all realize that initiatives, like all laws, need updating now and again and no one is against doing what you’ve written above, but what we’ve seen so far are not what you’ve written above.
Oops, should be is not.
Tom, you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. You have fallen for outright lies told by clean-energy opponents and their bought-and-paid-for legislators of both parties. Let’s go through your points one by one:
1. These slight modifications of I-937 …
FACT: These are not slight modifications but a 15% cut in renewables acquisitions through the House compromise bill and a 75% cut through the Brown/Marr/Avista bill. These are hundreds of jobs, millions of dollars in lost local revenues and tons and tons of CO2 emissions that could have been avoided (since more NEW power will come from fossil fuels — counting existing hydro and other existing resources does not meet future needs … duh).
2. … allow for more consideration of the green nature of hydroelectric …
FACT: There’s no debate about hydropower being renewable — it’s even listed first in I-937. Efficiency upgrades at existing hydropower dams colunt toward the initiative. As noted, hydro will not meet additional needs, so we’ll have to find other renewables if our energy is to be as clean tomorrow as it is today.
3. … so we don’t end up paying through the nose for wind and solar in the short term while our own hydro is sold to Cali and other states at immense profits
FACTS: No one has to send their hydropower to California, though it does fetch a pretty penny (and lowers our rates a bit) when we’ve got some extra to spare. No one has to “pay through the nose” for wind and solar they don’t “need” since they can buy fairly inexpensive renewable energy certificates (that’s what “RECs” means) and if they have flat or negative growth, they qualify to meet a far lower standard. O, by the way, most Northwest hydropower will not count toward California’s renewable energy standard (which is now 33% by 2020)
4. … and then our own rate payers don’t get reemed and are more protected in the short run as we transition to green power.
FACT: As all the utilities, big businesses and arrayed opponents fully understand but studiously avoid noting, I-937 has a cost cap — written with the help of and endorsed by the Washington Public Utility Districts Asso. (WAPUDA) in 2006 — that limits any increased costs to utilities for choosing renewables over dirty fossil fuels (that’s the choice people … well, OK, the other choice is nukes). Even if reached, which HAS NOT come close to happening in any of the other 27 states with renewable energy standards, the rise would be minuscule compared the huge rate hikes over the past 10 years … which have had nothing to do with acquiring more clean energy.
5. … all initiatives … are very rarely good policy without some modifications.
FACT: Clean-energy supporters tried for five straight years to pass what became I-937 through the legislature. The same folks fighting clean energy now kept it off the floor every time, raising EXACTLY the same false issues then as now. There was no choice but to put the matter before the people. The initiative itself was written by a committee of energy policy experts, including WAPUDA, which took all of the legislative debates into consideration. All the stuff about the initiative not benefiting from legislative review is a transparent cover for saying “we don’t care what the poeple want, we only care about our financial backers.”
Just a small point. The Governor is not pushing this bill. What Chris and her administration are doing, is trying to effect any bill that may pass both houses so I-937 is not undermined to the extent the senate proposed.
Too bad the Democrats in the state leg have tons of courage to kill initiatives supporting the environment and reducing class size, but don't have the guts to stand up against Tim Eyman.