This bill creates a new Clean Energy Fund loan program and related state treasury accounts and amends existing law. It adds a loan program (new section 2, added to chapter 43.21F RCW) administered by “the department” (not named in the provided text) to make loans, subject to available appropriations, for a range of clean energy projects. Eligible uses expressly include acquiring electric or hydrogen vehicles and supporting infrastructure; site evaluation and technical assistance for energy generation/transmission facilities; installing solar, wind, geothermal, or hydrogen equipment sized to meet an applicant’s energy use; development of advanced nuclear technology including small modular reactors; facility decarbonization; research and development of clean energy generation or storage; grid modernization; and agriculture and forestry–specific clean energy work. Eligible recipients listed include persons or organizations engaged in business (broadly defined), electric utilities, corporations organized under Title 24 RCW, operating or joint operating agencies, political subdivisions of Washington, and national laboratories with facilities in Washington. The measure creates a new clean energy fund account in the state treasury to receive appropriations, bond proceeds, federal funds, and loan principal and interest, and limits expenditures from that account to loans under the new program (with up to 1% allowed for program administration). It authorizes the department to set reduced or capped interest rates for public or governmental borrowers (modeled on RCW 43.155.060 and .065) but prohibits offering loans to private entities at an interest rate below the U.S. prime rate plus two percent. The department must perform due diligence, ensure compliance with disclosure and ethics laws, include related requirements in funding agreements, and may cancel a loan and require repayment or pursue legal remedies if it concludes a disclosure or ethics violation occurred. The bill also reenacts and amends RCW 43.84.092 and establishes or clarifies a treasury income account for deposit and monthly distribution of investment earnings on surplus balances. The Office of Financial Management is directed to determine amounts due under the federal Cash Management Improvement Act and may direct transfers; the state treasurer must distribute earnings monthly, crediting the general fund except that many specified accounts (including the new clean energy fund account and a newly created climate commitment account under amended RCW 70A.65.260) receive proportionate shares based on average daily balances. The amendment to RCW 70A.65.260 creates the climate commitment account to receive moneys from the climate investment account, restricts eligible projects to those physically located in Washington and not violating tribal treaty rights or causing significant long-term habitat damage, makes funds spendable only after appropriation, and includes specific biennial appropriation directions (including a legislative intent to dedicate at least $50 million per biennium for tribal mitigation/adaptation). The act sets effective dates and an expiration for one section (section 6 expires July 1, 2028; sections 1–6 and 8–11 take effect July 1, 2025; section 7 takes effect July 1, 2028). The provided material omits the department’s name, the full text of several referenced sections (including the complete list of beneficiary accounts for earnings allocations), and some section texts and lists, so those specifics are uncertain from these excerpts.

If enacted, the state would create a new, legislatively funded loan program and two new treasury accounts to support clean energy and climate projects. Businesses, electric utilities, local governments, tribal governments, national labs with Washington facilities, farms, builders, industrial operators, low‑income and rural residents, and workforce and education programs would have a new source of loans for things like electric or hydrogen vehicles and fueling infrastructure, on‑site clean energy equipment, advanced nuclear development, decarbonization, grid modernization, and agriculture/forestry clean technologies. Access to money will depend on legislative appropriations and federal funding; loan repayments replenish the clean energy account, which can only be spent for authorized loans and can use up to 1% for program administration. Public entities may get reduced or capped interest rates, while private borrowers cannot be charged below U.S. prime plus two percent, and the administering department must perform due diligence, include ethics and disclosure compliance in agreements, and can cancel loans and demand repayment for violations. The practical effects include new borrowing options for many project sponsors but no guaranteed funding until the legislature provides dollars, so projects will still face timing and appropriation uncertainty. The department assigned to run the program (not named in the provided text) takes on new responsibilities and some administrative costs, and must track federal funds separately; recipients face the risk that loans can be rescinded for ethics or disclosure breaches. The act also creates a climate commitment account that channels climate investment dollars to in‑state projects only after appropriation, prohibits funding that violates tribal treaty rights or causes significant long‑term ecological harm, and expresses a legislative intent to set aside at least $50 million per biennium for tribal climate support, though exact implementation details and some section specifics are not included in the provided material.