Natural Gas Regulations Could Be On WA Ballot In November

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OLYMPIA — Washington voters could decide in November whether utilities and local governments must provide natural gas to eligible customers and whether to curtail state regulations that disincentivize natural gas use.

The hundreds of thousands of signatures required to get the measure on the ballot are due in less than two months. The proposal comes as other states across the country have moved to bar bans on natural gas service .

The new initiative is getting support from Let's Go Washington, the group supporting a slate of initiatives that have secured slots on the November ballot .

Initiative 2066 would repeal key parts of House Bill 1589 , which legislators passed this year. The bill made changes to state law to help Puget Sound Energy comply with earlier climate legislation, including the state's plan to cap and reduce carbon emissions.

"Banning natural gas is a reckless policy that harms nearly everyone in our community," said Greg Lane, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington, at a Thursday news conference kicking off the signature-gathering effort in Olympia. "That's why we strongly support Initiative 2066 to protect energy choice for everyone here in Washington."

Washington has not banned natural gas. House Bill 1589 doesn't ban natural gas or change PSE's obligation to provide it to customers.

"[Puget Sound Energy] has an obligation to serve any customer who wants natural gas," a spokesperson for PSE said in a statement Thursday. HB 1589 didn't change that, so the relevant provisions in Initiative 2066 wouldn't affect the company or its customers, they said.

"It's disappointing to see continued misinformation about what the legislation require[s]," the spokesperson said, adding that the bill was "fundamentally a planning requirement" and that the initiative backed by the builders would "strip out important mechanisms that help us to cost-effectively plan for the eventual decarbonization of our system in alignment with customer choices and state policies."