2006 Washington Initiative 937

Ballot Initiative 937 (official name Initiative measure no. 937, known as I-937) is a clean energy initiative passed in the US state of Washington, appearing on the ballot in the November 2006 elections. It passed with 52 percent of the vote.[1]

Content of the proposal

The initiative requires large utilities to obtain 15% of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind (but excluding hydro) by 2020 with incremental steps of 3% by 2012 and 9% by 2016. It also requires that utilities undertake all cost-effective energy conservation.[2]

Precedents

Similar legislation has been enacted in at least 20 other states including the following. (The table is sorted by date and then by descending percentage. I-937 is included in bold.)

State	Name	Enacted	Percentage	By	Comments/Source
Maine			30%	2000
Arizona			1.1%	2007
Massachusetts			4%	2009
Connecticut			10%	2010
Iowa			~10%	2010
New Mexico			10%	2011
New York			24%	2013
Nevada			20%	2015
Minnesota			19%	2015
Montana			15%	2015
Colorado	Amendment 37	2004	10%	2015	First ballot initiative[3]
Texas			~4.2%	2015	5.88 GW
California			20%	2017
Rhode Island			16%	2019
Delaware			10%	2019
Maryland			7.5%	2019
New Jersey			22.5%	2020
Hawaii			20%	2020
Washington	I-937		15%	2020
Washington, D.C.			11%	2022
Pennsylvania			8%	2020

Unless indicated otherwise, data are from [4]

Supporters

Supporters included the following:[5]

Environmental

Faith

Earth Ministry
Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington
Washington Association of Churches
Church Council of Greater Seattle

Newspapers

Opponents

Opponents included many small co-op electrical providers (even though the initiative affects only utilities with greater than 25,000 customers) as well as the following:[6]

Big Bend Electrical Cooperative Archived 2006-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
Boeing
Boise Cascade
Chamber of Commerces: Bellevue, Greater Seattle, Kelso-Longview, Pasco, Spokane Regional, Tacoma-Pierce County, Wenatchee Valley, West Richland Area
Modern Electric Water Company
National Association of Manufacturers
Peninsula Light Company
PUDs of Benton, Cowlitz, Franklin, Lewis, and Mason County.
Representatives Brian Blake (D) and Dean Takko
Senators Jean Berkey (D) and Mark L. Doumit (D)
Tanner Electric Cooperative Archived 2006-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Washington Farm Bureau
Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association
Weyerhaeuser

References

"MSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos". www.msnbc.msn.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2007.
Full text of Ballot Initiative 937 (.pdf)
"The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard Ballot Initiative". Archived from the original on 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
"State Clean Energy Maps and Graphs". Archived from the original on 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
"Yes! On I-937". Archived from the original on 2006-11-04. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
"Domain Name Renewal and web hosting from Network Solutions". Archived from the original on 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2006-10-26.

External links

Washington’s Primary Energy Consumption by Source Archived 2006-10-03 at the Wayback Machine (.doc)

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[1] "MSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos". www.msnbc.msn.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2007.

[2] Full text of Ballot Initiative 937 (.pdf)

[3] "The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard Ballot Initiative". Archived from the original on 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2006-10-26.

[4] "State Clean Energy Maps and Graphs". Archived from the original on 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2006-10-26.

[5] "Yes! On I-937". Archived from the original on 2006-11-04. Retrieved 2006-10-26.

[6] "Domain Name Renewal and web hosting from Network Solutions". Archived from the original on 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2006-10-26.