2006 Washington Initiative 937 Explained

Initiative measure no. 937
Clean Energy Initiative
Yes:	1,042,679
No:	972,747
Map:	File:2006 Washington initiative 937 results.svg
Mapcaption:	Results by county:Yes: No:
Notes:	Source: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections^[1]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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^[4]
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 ^[5]

Supporters

Supporters included the following:^[6]

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

• American Lung Association
• American Cancer Society
• Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility

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

• The Seattle P-I
• The Olympian
• The Tacoma News Tribune
• The Stranger

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:^[7]

• Big Bend Electrical Cooperative
  • • 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
  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce Washington Farm Bureau
• Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association
• Weyerhaeuser

References

1. Web site: 2006 Initiative General Election Results - Washington . January 12, 2024 . David Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
2. Web site: MSN. . https://web.archive.org/web/20071116051103/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/default.aspx/id/15652935/ . November 16, 2007.
3. http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i937.pdf Full text of Ballot Initiative 937
4. Web site: The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard Ballot Initiative . 2006-10-26 . 2006-10-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061028145626/http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/the-colorado-renewable-energy-standard-ballot-initiative.html . dead .
5. Web site: State Clean Energy Maps and Graphs . 2006-10-26 . 2006-10-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061028150240/http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_policies/state-clean-energy-maps-and-graphs.html . dead .
6. Web site: Yes! On I-937 . 2006-10-26 . 2006-11-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061104013315/http://www.yeson937.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=1977 . dead .
7. Web site: Domain Name Renewal and web hosting from Network Solutions . 2006-10-26 . 2007-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070906085923/http://nooni937.com/Endorsements.html . dead .

External links

• Washington’s Primary Energy Consumption by Source (.doc)