House Bill 2690 amends chapter 19.405 RCW, adds a new legislative findings section, and clarifies existing requirements for electric utilities to provide low-income energy assistance rather than expanding those obligations. The bill amends RCW 19.405.020 (definitions) and RCW 19.405.120 and creates a new section with findings about coordinating utilities, public agencies, nonprofits, and private/charitable funding, limiting a utility’s obligation to assistance tied to the electricity it provides (not other household fuels), and preserving local and regulatory rate-making authority. The bill imposes procedural requirements on utilities and the department: each electric utility must offer at least one energy assistance program for low-income households, demonstrate progress through biennial assessments and improvement plans, disclose program data and amounts passed to third parties to the department, and estimate funding needed to meet 60 percent and 90 percent of the current energy assistance need associated with electricity use. The department must collect and aggregate utility data beginning July 31, 2020, publish updated aggregated data biennially, and submit a biennial report to the legislature assessing statewide energy burden, assistance need, current expenditures, and mechanisms to prioritize households with higher energy burden. Consumer-owned utilities may contract with public universities, community organizations, or joint operating agencies to aggregate and submit required disclosures. The amendments add and revise many statutory definitions used in the chapter (examples include energy assistance, energy assistance need, energy burden, energy transformation project, consumer-owned and investor-owned utilities, low-income with a cap of the higher of 80% area median income or 200% federal poverty level, renewable natural gas, renewable energy credit, and others). The changes are procedural and definitional; they do not create new crimes or change criminal penalties. Some statutory text is missing from the extracted facts (the remainder of the “natural gas” definition is incomplete, and the full amended text of RCW 19.405.120 and any additional new-section provisions are not shown).

If enacted, electric utilities will be required to run at least one program that helps low-income customers with electricity costs, and they must every two years report to the Department of Commerce on how many households they serve, how much money is spent, and plans showing what funding would be needed to meet 60% and 90% of the estimated electricity-related energy assistance need. The Department of Commerce will aggregate those reports into a statewide biennial report for the legislature, and utilities are expressly allowed to prioritize households with higher energy burdens and to pool funds from utilities, public agencies, nonprofits, or private donations; consumer-owned utilities can hire universities or community groups to compile and submit the data. The people most affected are electric utilities, which will face new ongoing administrative and planning work and likely some added cost to produce assessments, expand outreach, or increase programs if they aim to meet the need scenarios; third-party nonprofits and community organizations may see more partnership or funding opportunities. The Department of Commerce will have a larger role in collecting and publishing statewide data. The bill limits utilities’ obligation to assistance related to the electricity they provide (not other fuels) and preserves regulators’ rate-setting authority, but the amendment text for one section and the full natural gas definition are missing from the provided facts, so some implementation details and exact reporting requirements remain unclear.