| Clean Energy Initiative | ||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
 Results by county:
| ||||||||||
| Source: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections | ||||||||||
Yes
No
Ballot Initiative 937 (official name Initiative measure no. 937, known as I-937) is a clean energy initiative passed in the US state of Washington, appearing on the ballot in the November 2006 elections. It passed with 52 percent of the vote.
Content of the proposal
The initiative requires large utilities to obtain 15% of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind (but excluding hydro) by 2020 with incremental steps of 3% by 2012 and 9% by 2016. It also requires that utilities undertake all cost-effective energy conservation.
Precedents
Similar legislation has been enacted in at least 20 other states including the following. (The table is sorted by date and then by descending percentage. I-937 is included in bold.)
| State | Name | Enacted | Percentage | By | Comments/Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 30% | 2000 | |||
| Arizona | 1.1% | 2007 | |||
| Massachusetts | 4% | 2009 | |||
| Connecticut | 10% | 2010 | |||
| Iowa | ~10% | 2010 | |||
| New Mexico | 10% | 2011 | |||
| New York | 24% | 2013 | |||
| Nevada | 20% | 2015 | |||
| Minnesota | 19% | 2015 | |||
| Montana | 15% | 2015 | |||
| Colorado | Amendment 37 | 2004 | 10% | 2015 | First ballot initiative |
| Texas | ~4.2% | 2015 | 5.88 GW | ||
| California | 20% | 2017 | |||
| Rhode Island | 16% | 2019 | |||
| Delaware | 10% | 2019 | |||
| Maryland | 7.5% | 2019 | |||
| New Jersey | 22.5% | 2020 | |||
| Hawaii | 20% | 2020 | |||
| Washington | I-937 | 15% | 2020 | ||
| Washington, D.C. | 11% | 2022 | |||
| Pennsylvania | 8% | 2020 |
Unless indicated otherwise, data are from
Supporters
Supporters included the following:
Elected officials
- U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray
- U.S. Congressmen Jay Inslee, Adam Smith, Norm Dicks and Jim McDermott
- State Senators Luke Esser (R), Dave Schmidt (R), Debbie Regala (D), Bill Finkbeiner (R), Erik Poulsen (D), Karen Fraser (D), Craig Pridemore (D), Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D), Karen Keiser (D)
- State Representatives Toby Nixon (R), Zach Hudgins (D), Brian J. Sullivan (D), Fred Jarrett (R), Pat Sullivan (D), Geoff Simpson (D), Rodney Tom (D), Dave Upthegrove (D), Brendan Williams (D)
- King County Executive Ron Sims
- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels
Civic and political organizations
- League of Women Voters
- Kittitas Valley League of Women voters
- Washington State Democrats
- King County Young Democrats
- Republicans for Environmental Protection, Washington Chapter
- Green Party of Washington State
- Peace Action for Washington
Health organizations
Energy and labor
- Washington Public Utility Districts Association
- Washington State Labor Council
- United Steelworkers
- SEIU Washington State Council
Environmental
- Denis Hayes, Founder of Earth Day
- NW Energy Coalition
- Audubon Society Washington
- The Mountaineers
- Sierra Club - Cascade Chapter
- Washington Conservation Voters
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- National Wildlife Federation
Faith
- Earth Ministry
- Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington
- Washington Association of Churches
- Church Council of Greater Seattle
Newspapers
Opponents
Opponents included many small co-op electrical providers (even though the initiative affects only utilities with greater than 25,000 customers) as well as the following:
- Big Bend Electrical Cooperative Archived 2006-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Boeing
- Boise Cascade
- Chamber of Commerces: Bellevue, Greater Seattle, Kelso-Longview, Pasco, Spokane Regional, Tacoma-Pierce County, Wenatchee Valley, West Richland Area
- Modern Electric Water Company
- National Association of Manufacturers
- Peninsula Light Company
- PUDs of Benton, Cowlitz, Franklin, Lewis, and Mason County.
- Representatives Brian Blake (D) and Dean Takko
- Senators Jean Berkey (D) and Mark L. Doumit (D)
- Tanner Electric Cooperative Archived 2006-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- Washington Farm Bureau
- Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association
- Weyerhaeuser
References
- "2006 Initiative General Election Results - Washington". David Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
- "MSN". MSNBC. Archived from the original on November 16, 2007.
- Full text of Ballot Initiative 937 (.pdf)
- "The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard Ballot Initiative". Archived from the original on 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- "State Clean Energy Maps and Graphs". Archived from the original on 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- "Yes! On I-937". Archived from the original on 2006-11-04. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- "Domain Name Renewal and web hosting from Network Solutions". Archived from the original on 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
External links
- Washington’s Primary Energy Consumption by Source Archived 2006-10-03 at the Wayback Machine (.doc)