Voters in Washington state pushed back on the green energy agenda of the state's Democrat leadership, voting in favor of blocking any bans on access to natural gas.
When local NBC affiliate KING 5 officially called the vote on Friday morning, a 51.4% majority of voters had approved Initiative 2066, which would require that utilities provide natural gas service to any person or business that opts for it. The ballot measure also bans the Washington Utility and Trade Commission from approving multiyear rate plans that require or incentivize ending natural gas service.
"Given the voting trends both on election night and these past two days, it’s clear that Initiative 2066 has been approved by Washington voters," Building Industry Association of Washington Executive Vice President Greg Lane said in a statement Thursday. "And their message couldn't be more clear: Washington families and businesses support keeping natural gas service and they demand to have energy choice."
Brian Heywood, the founder of Let's Go Washington, which collected the more than 530,000 signatures needed to get Initiative 2066 on the ballot, also celebrated the measure's passing in a statement on Thursday.
"We fought for Washington's rural communities that couldn’t survive the freezing winters and grid blackouts without natural gas," Heywood said. "We fought for small businesses who could not afford to retrofit their buildings to electric. We fought for Washingtonians tired of being forced to comply with policies that make their lives more difficult from a legislature that has proven they aren’t listening to citizens."
Initiative 2066 was reportedly written to prevent the state's building code council from discouraging or penalizing the use of natural gas. While not mandated, green energy alternatives, such as heat pumps, are encouraged and incentivized over natural gas under the current state building code.
The Evergreen State's ballot measure comes as the use of natural gas for cooking and heating in homes and businesses has come under increased scrutiny due to its risk to human health and methane emissions.
Democrat-run cities and states across the country have placed restrictions on gas stoves, including Berkeley, California, which in 2019 became the first city in the nation to ban their use in new construction. A federal appeals court overturned Berkeley’s ban in April, however. On the opposite coast, New York became the first state to ban natural gas stoves in most new homes and buildings, with the law set to take effect in 2026.
Last week's ballot measure came in response to House Bill 1589, which was passed by the Washington Legislature earlier this year. The law was intended to create programs and requirements that would incentivize both utility companies and customers to reduce carbon emissions.
Washington Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee has long called for phasing out the use of natural gas in the state. In 2022, Axios reported that Inslee encouraged residents of his state to make use of "alternative means of heating and cooking" and "restrain the future use of dirty gas."
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