BILL REQ. #:  H-0386.2 

Prefiled 12/27/2006. Read first time 01/08/2007.   Referred to Committee on Technology, Energy & Communications.

     AN ACT Relating to the purchasing of renewable energy by public entities; and adding a new section to chapter 19.29A RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 19.29A RCW to read as follows:
     (1) Except as provided under subsection (2) of this section, a state agency that is served by a public or private utility must purchase twenty percent of their total electricity in the form of qualified alternative energy resources from their local electric utility. In purchasing qualified alternative energy resources from their local electric utility, a state agency shall pay for qualified alternative energy resources at a rate no less than the retail price of a qualified alternative energy product that their local electric utility charges its customers under RCW 19.29A.090.
     (2) State agencies are not required to purchase qualified alternative energy resources from their local electric utility if the utility is exempt from offering a qualified alternative energy product.
     (3) For the purposes of this section, a "qualified alternative energy resource" means the electricity produced from generation facilities located within the state that are fueled by: (a) Wind; (b) solar energy; (c) geothermal energy; (d) biogas produced during treatment of human or animal waste evolved from landfills; (e) wave or tidal action; (f) gas produced during the treatment of wastewater; (g) qualified hydropower; (h) combined heat and power or cogeneration as defined in RCW 35.97.010; or (i) biomass energy based on animal waste or solid organic fuels from wood, forest or field residues, algae, or dedicated energy crops that do not include wood pieces that have been treated with chemical preservatives such as creosote, pentachlorophenol, or copper-chrome-arsenic.