BILL REQ. #:  H-3820.1 

Read first time 01/31/12.   Referred to Committee on Environment.

     AN ACT Relating to the full accounting of environmental expenses associated with coal-based electricity generation; amending RCW 80.04.080; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that generating electricity from the combustion of coal produces pollutants that are harmful to human health and safety and the environment. The emissions from the combustion of coal significantly impact visibility in protected national park and tribal areas in the Northwest.
     The legislature has previously recognized that greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change and has found that Washington is especially vulnerable to climate change. The legislature further finds that, on average, eighteen percent of the state's annual power consumption and fifty percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions from in-state electricity consumption comes from coal power plants.
     The legislature finds that many coal power plants across the country are in need of significant modernization to ensure fundamental safeguards for clean air, water, and land.
     The legislature further finds that electricity ratepayers in Washington could suffer undue economic burden from continued expenses for coal-based electricity resources if there is not a full accounting of pending and future expenses from environmental compliance.
     The legislature finds that the Washington state utilities and transportation commission has begun to require financial accounting of environmental expenses by administrative rule and finds that a statute can ensure long-term consistency and legislative endorsement of the principle of clear, transparent, and complete accounting.

Sec. 2   RCW 80.04.080 and 1989 c 107 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Every public service company shall annually furnish to the commission a report in such form as the commission may require, and shall specifically answer all questions propounded to it by the commission, upon or concerning which the commission may need information. Such annual reports shall show in detail the amount of capital stock issued, the amounts paid therefor and the manner of payment for same, the dividends paid, the surplus fund, if any, and the number of stockholders, the funded and floating debts and the interest paid thereon, the cost and value of the company's property, franchises and equipment, the number of employees and the salaries paid each class, the accidents to employees and other persons and the cost thereof, the amounts expended for improvements each year, how expended and the character of such improvements, the earnings or receipts from each franchise or business and from all sources, the proportion thereof earned from business moving wholly within the state and the proportion earned from interstate business, the operating and other expenses and the proportion of such expense incurred in transacting business wholly within the state, and proportion incurred in transacting interstate business, such division to be shown according to such rules of division as the commission may prescribe, the balances of profit and loss, and a complete exhibit of the financial operations of the company each year, including an annual balance sheet. Such report shall also contain such information in relation to rates, charges or regulations concerning charges, or agreements, arrangements or contracts affecting the same, as the commission may require; and the commission may, in its discretion, for the purpose of enabling it the better to carry out the provisions of this title, prescribe the period of time within which all public service companies subject to the provisions of this title shall have, as near as may be, a uniform system of accounts, and the manner in which such accounts shall be kept. Such detailed report shall contain all the required statistics for the period of twelve months ending on the last day of any particular month prescribed by the commission for any public service company. Such reports shall be made out under oath and filed with the commission at its office in Olympia on such date as the commission specifies by rule, unless additional time be granted in any case by the commission. The commission shall have authority to require any public service company to file monthly reports of earnings and expenses, and to file periodical or special, or both periodical and special, reports concerning any matter about which the commission is authorized or required by this or any other law, to inquire into or keep itself informed about, or which it is required to enforce, such periodical or special reports to be under oath whenever the commission so requires.
     (2) Each electrical company shall provide an annual report to the commission concerning electricity provided by the company, from coal power plants owned in whole or in part by the company, to one or more retail electric customers. The report must provide the full cost accounting of environmental expenses associated with each plant, as identified by or associated with:
     (a) The most recent annual report to shareholders, if any, and any subsequent quarterly reports to shareholders; the most recent federal energy regulatory commission form 1 and form 2, if applicable, and the company's federal securities and exchange commission form 10k's, form 10q's, any prospectuses for any issuances of securities, and quarterly reports to stockholders, if any, for the most recent two years prior to the filing date;
     (b) Any proposed federal regulations concerning air emissions or climate change. The regulations will need to be accounted for once the federal government has proposed a draft rule or has published a date for proposed regulations or is under a court order to file a rule, regulation, or determination that affects a coal plant, or its adjacent mine that provides coal for the plant, that serves electricity to Washington state customers;
     (c) Any proposed state rules concerning air emissions or climate change. The rules will need to be accounted for once a state government, which has jurisdiction over a coal-based resource that provides electricity for Washington state customers, has proposed a draft rule or has published a date for proposed rules or is under a court order to file a rule, regulation, or determination that affects a coal plant, or its adjacent mine that provides coal for the plant, that serves electricity to Washington state customers;
     (d) Any existing litigation against a coal plant that provides electricity for Washington state customers; and
     (e) Best estimates of potential future costs of compliance with state or federal laws regulating carbon dioxide emissions from a coal plant. The report must explain any differences between these estimates and estimates used in the utility's most recently filed integrated resource plan under chapter 19.280 RCW.