This bill creates a new advisory committee, housed within the interagency electric vehicle coordinating council (or its industry advisory/ad hoc committee), to address property crime affecting electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The committee’s membership is described by category (including representatives from the attorney general’s office, law enforcement, recycling and nonferrous metals trade organizations, EV charging equipment providers for level 2 and level 3, city and county government, power utilities, community groups, technical experts, installation workforce, site hosts, EV drivers, and others as needed). The council must use the committee’s advice to provide guidance and recommendations to reduce EV charger property crime, be available to respond to legislators’ questions on the topic, include the committee’s findings and activities in the council’s annual report to legislative committees, and ensure the committee meets and reports at council meetings regularly. The committee is subject to available appropriations in the omnibus transportation appropriations act and the new section expires July 1, 2028. This is a procedural/administrative change establishing a new advisory body. The bill also reenacts and amends RCW 42.56.270, changing public disclosure exemptions by listing categories of financial, commercial, proprietary, operational, technical, research, and other sensitive information that are exempt from disclosure in specific contexts. The amended text includes a definition of “siting decision,” provides that certain information obtained by an agency within five years of a disclosure request is exempt, and establishes a rule under which some identifying information held by the Department of Commerce becomes public if there is no written contact for 60 days. The amendments enumerate additional protected categories (items numbered 19–34 in the provided text) covering matters such as cannabis product traceability data (with disclosure to government officials not treated as public disclosure), proprietary investment or vendor information, certain environmental and fuel transfer records, and other agency-specific confidential information. This is a modification to the state public records law that changes which records are exempt from disclosure and the procedures and timeframes governing some disclosures. The provisions affect the interagency electric vehicle coordinating council and its advisory committee, the attorney general’s office, law enforcement, recycling and nonferrous metals organizations, EV charging industry participants, local governments, utilities, counties, community advocacy groups, the installation workforce, EV site hosts and drivers, and many state agencies referenced in the amended RCW 42.56.270 (for example, the Department of Commerce, Liquor and Cannabis Board, Department of Ecology, University of Washington, Department of Revenue, and others). The advisory committee work is explicitly subject to appropriations. The extracted text omits a numbered subsection (3) in Section 1, does not include the full amended RCW 42.56.270 (the list of exemptions continues past the provided items), and does not provide details on appointment procedures, member terms, voting, staff support, or the specific appropriation amount.

If enacted, the state would stand up a time-limited advisory committee under the interagency electric vehicle coordinating council to bring law enforcement, recyclers, utilities, local governments, installers, site hosts, drivers and technical experts together to develop guidance and recommendations to reduce theft of EV chargers and to answer legislative questions; those findings must be included in the council’s annual report. Practically this means named agencies and private-sector stakeholders will be asked to commit staff time and expertise and may face new recommended practices or future policy changes, but actual work and scope depend on funding from the omnibus transportation appropriations act, and appointment, staffing and implementation details are not specified here. The bill also reenacts and amends a public records exemption that protects many categories of financial, commercial, technical and proprietary information (covering things like cannabis traceability data, certain Ecology notices, university and retirement investment details, and zero‑emission vehicle credit information), and clarifies a “siting decision” term and when some siting-related identifying information becomes public after 60 days without contact. In practice, businesses and agencies submitting these types of materials should expect greater confidentiality for sensitive submissions (reducing public access and helping protect trade secrets), while some siting-related contact information may become public if no follow-up occurs; the provided text is an incomplete excerpt, so the full list of exemptions and precise application remain unclear.