Washington Initiative 937


Ballot Initiative 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 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.
StateNameEnactedPercentageByComments/Source
Maine30%2000
Arizona1.1%2007
Massachusetts4%2009
Connecticut10%2010
Iowa~10%2010
New Mexico10%2011
New York24%2013
Nevada20%2015
Minnesota19%2015
Montana15%2015
ColoradoAmendment 37200410%2015First ballot initiative
Texas~4.2%20155.88 GW
California20%2017
Rhode Island16%2019
Delaware10%2019
Maryland7.5%2019
New Jersey22.5%2020
Hawaii20%2020
WashingtonI-93715%2020
Washington, D.C.11%2022
Pennsylvania8%2020

Unless indicated otherwise, data are from

Supporters

Supporters included the following:

Elected officials

Opponents included many small co-op electrical providers as well as the following: