How two ballot initiatives would affect Washington's clean building efforts and how the state can maintain its lead.

Buildings make up a quarter of Washington state's carbon emissions, polluting more than any other sector except transportation. To change this grim statistic and achieve state climate goals, Washington has put in place some of the strongest building decarbonization policies in the United States.

Washington has mandated that the state's electricity come from carbon-free sources by 2045. It has passed leading energy efficiency requirements for its biggest polluting institutions. It has created innovative pathways for utilities to help their customers electrify. And it has incentivized builders to install high-efficiency electric appliances instead of polluting gas-fired ones in new construction.

Two statewide initiatives on the November 2024 ballot could undo some of this robust policy and regulatory apparatus. So, Sightline analyzed the proposals and assessed how they would (or would not) affect Washington's building decarbonization efforts.

Initiative 2117 to repeal Washington's Climate Commitment Act would take with it more than $442 million that the state legislature has authorized to clean up existing buildings. Initiative 2066 would prevent the state, cities, and counties from actions that "prohibit, penalize, or discourage" the use of gas for heating or other appliances, which could affect Washington's new energy code and Seattle's new Building Emissions Performance Standard. Initiative 2066 would also repeal parts of HB 1589, a new policy to help customers of Washington's largest utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), go electric.

In the meantime, other US states are putting in place ever more ambitious building decarbonization policies and regulations, such as stronger building performance standards and more support to help residents make the switch from gas to electric appliances. To maintain lead, Washington can look to states such as Colorado, Maryland, and New York for inspiration.

WASHINGTON HAS LAID A STRONG POLICY FOUNDATION TO CLEAN UP ITS EXISTING BUILDINGS

The state's carbon-free electricity mandate will nearly halve existing building emissions

Buildings pollute the climate in two primary ways: running on electricity from a not-yet-carbon-free grid and burning fossil fuels (mostly gas) directly for space and water heating. In Washington, these two sources each make up about half of the state's emissions from commercial and residential buildings.

In 2019 the state legislature tackled the first of these drivers by passing Washington's clean electricity mandate, the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA). CETA requires that electric utilities' portfolios be greenhouse gas-neutral by 2030 and completely carbon-free by 2045. Washington's grid is already about two-thirds non-emitting, but utilities still burn gas and coal for at least 20 percent of the state's power.

Once fully implemented, CETA will erase about half of the emissions from existing commercial and residential buildings by eliminating carbon pollution from electricity.

Performance standards will further drive down pollution in big buildings

Complementing CETA, in 2019, Washington also passed the Clean Buildings Act, which established the United States' first statewide building performance standard. Following Washington's lead, Colorado, Maryland, and Oregon have since established their own building performance standards.

Washington's Clean Buildings Performance Standard (CBPS) requires existing commercial buildings larger than 50,000 square feet (office buildings, universities, and shopping malls, for example) to meet an energy efficiency target tailored to their building type and climate zone. More than 8,000 buildings will need to comply with the new standard, with compliance for the largest buildings beginning in 2026.

The CBPS does not direct buildings on how to meet the energy efficiency target. But in practice, adherence to the stan...