The Washington Clean Energy Initiative

In November 2006, the citizens of Washington voted in support of Initiative 937 (I-937), which established a renewable energy standard requiring the state's largest electric utilities to supply 15 percent of their electricity sales from eligible renewable resources by 2020. It also required those electric utilities to pursue all low-cost energy conservation opportunities with their customers and in their communities. As a result, Washington became the twenty-first state (plus the District of Columbia) to enact a standard that requires electric utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources, and the ninth state to enact an energy efficiency resource standards, which promote more efficient generation and use of electricity and natural gas. In this report, the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed the costs and benefits of the renewable energy and energy efficiency provisions of I-937.