Contact your Legislators to protect I-937

Thanks to you and many others, state legislators have received thousands of concerned letters and phone calls about protecting I-937. Governor Gregoire stepped in and proposed a solution that will preserve key provisions of I-937 while also extending the renewable tax incentives set to expire this year.

Thanks to these efforts by the Governor, Representative John McCoy, and other key legislators, a compromise was reached on SB 5840 that reduces the impact of the version of the bill recently approved by the Senate.

Please contact your legislators today at 1-800-562-6000 to urge them to support tax incentives for renewable energy and to reject any substantive amendments to bill ESSB 5840 that would further weaken I-937.

Although the new version of the bill still decreases the amount of renewable energy acquired compared with I-937, it narrows the amount of existing resources utilities can use to meet the standard. And it raises the overall renewable energy standards to 16.25% by 2020 and sets a promising goal to acquire 20% renewable energy by 2025.

As part of the solution, the Governor has called for an increase in clean energy development in our state by extending the sales tax break for renewable energy production like wind and solar power. This extension will create incentives to invest in renewable energy projects that create jobs in our state, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and combating global warming.  

Both of these bills are close to a final vote in the legislature.