Clean Energy Transformation Act. In 2019, the Legislature passed the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), which requires Washington's electric utilities to meet 100 percent of their retail electric load using non-emitting and renewable resources by January 1, 2045. CETA requires electric utilities to eliminate coal-fired resources from their allocation of electricity by December 31, 2025, and make all retail sales of electricity greenhouse gas neutral by January 1, 2030.
Under CETA, market customers are defined as nonresidential retail electric customers of an electric utility that:
An affected market customer is a customer of an investor-owned utility (IOU) who becomes a market customer after May 7, 2019. Affected market customers must comply with the greenhouse gas neutral standard and the 100 percent clean electricity standard under CETA.
Affected market customers of consumer-owned utilities, as well as IOUs, must comply with the greenhouse gas neutral standard and the 100 percent clean electricity standard under CETA.
PRO: When the Legislature passed CETA there was a small loophole and this bill closes that loophole. When a large utility customer seeks to obtain power from someone other than its utility, the customer of an IOU becomes responsible for the clean energy requirements for CETA. This is not the case if the interconnecting utility is a COU. We believe the law is clear and the Legislature intended all electricity used by businesses and consumers in Washington should be clean over time. We can correct that if we fix this loophole. The bill ensures CETA requirements will apply to future market customers served by COUs and these customers will receive equal treatment under the act, whether their utility is a COU or IOU. This bill protects residents from subsidizing bitcoin companies. It is important to ensure that Washington achieves a clean grid.