This bill amends multiple sections of chapter 19.405 RCW, creates at least one new section, and revises definitions and compliance rules under the Washington clean energy transformation act. It authorizes electric utilities to count electricity from natural gas systems operated with carbon capture, utilization, mineralization, or sequestration technology toward greenhouse gas neutrality by January 1, 2030 and toward the 100 percent nonemitting/renewable supply policy by January 1, 2045. It establishes four-year compliance periods beginning Jan 1, 2030 (2030–2033, 2034–2037, 2038–2041, 2042–2044) and requires each utility to use nonemitting generation, renewable resources, or qualifying natural-gas-with-carbon-capture electricity equal to 100 percent of retail load over each compliance period. Through Dec. 31, 2044 up to 20 percent of a utility’s obligation may be met with specified alternative compliance options, including alternative compliance payments, limited categories of unbundled renewable energy credits, approved energy transformation projects, and certain pre-1992 municipal solid waste energy recovery facilities. The bill makes procedural and definitional changes, including revisions to numerous defined terms (for example, distributed energy resource, nonemitting electric generation, and baseline carbon dioxide production for natural gas systems) and establishes planning, reporting, and review requirements. Investor-owned and consumer-owned utilities must file four-year clean energy implementation plans (first due Jan. 1, 2022 and every four years thereafter) with the commission or the department, respectively; both types of utilities may rely on a two percent compliance-cost test as a condition of compliance subject to specified maximization and documentation requirements. The department and the regional entity must evaluate reliability, resource adequacy, transmission, cost, and equity impacts; the department must report to the legislature beginning Jan. 1, 2024 and at least every four years thereafter. The bill also amends enforcement and penalties: it establishes an administrative penalty calculated as $100 times a multiplier per MWh of ineligible generation used to meet load (multipliers 1.5 for coal, 0.84 for gas peakers without qualifying capture, 0.60 for combined-cycle gas without qualifying capture), with biennial adjustments starting in 2027 by the GDP implicit price deflator and possible further commission rulemaking for investor-owned utilities beginning in 2040; collected funds are directed to a low-income weatherization and structural rehabilitation assistance account. It provides limited relief processes for utilities (commission or governing body actions, auditor review, and the attorney general’s enforcement role), procedures for condemnation compensation to include replacement value, and authority for the commission to issue declaratory orders on project eligibility for compliance. Several important details are incomplete or not shown in the extracted text. The full new section created by the bill is not provided here, portions of the energy transformation project criteria and conversion factors are truncated, the capture design-capacity requirement sentence is incomplete (it references a minimum of 75 percent of baseline CO2 but lacks full context), and the identity of some referenced agencies labeled only as “the department” is not always specified in these excerpts.

If enacted, utilities would gain a new, allowable way to meet Washington’s clean electricity targets by counting power from natural gas plants that install carbon capture/mineralization/sequestration, while still being required to pursue efficiency and renewable options and file four-year implementation plans. Investor-owned utilities must submit plans to the utilities commission and consumer-owned utilities to the state department, and both can use limited alternative compliance tools (like payments, certain RECs, or investments in energy transformation projects) through 2044. Utilities that face higher costs can rely on a compliance-cost test that treats modest cost increases (about a two percent average annual revenue bump over four years) as compliant, but failing the standard risks per-megawatt-hour penalties tied to the type of fossil generation used; penalty revenue is directed to low-income weatherization programs. The practical winners and losers are electric utilities and their customers: utilities get a new compliance option (carbon capture on gas plants) but take on new planning, reporting, and investment decisions and potential new capital and operating costs for capture systems that must meet performance expectations; customers may face rate impacts if utilities pass through compliance costs, though the law provides a limited cost safety valve and avenues for temporary relief if reliability is at risk. State agencies (the commission, the unnamed department, Department of Ecology, auditor, and attorney general) gain new oversight and enforcement roles and must produce a reliability and cost evaluation that could delay or alter implementation. Some important technical details that affect cost and eligibility—such as the full capture performance standard, precise accounting rules for captured-CO2 power, and the identity of certain agencies referenced—are not fully shown in the excerpts and would change how these effects play out.