PSE's gas plan's fate looks dicey

Plus health care privacy, the weird death and life of HB1167, and ADUs advance

Things are looking bleak for Puget Sound Energy’s novel plan to cut off the growth of its natural gas business.

House Bill 1589, sponsored by House Environment & Energy Chair Beth Doglio, is currently stuck in the Senate Rules Committee while the company and its allies scramble to line up 25 votes. The bill would direct the state’s largest utility to stop expanding its natural gas network¹ in June of this year.

With a procedural deadline for the bill to pass the Senate looming next week, the lobbying effort on both sides has been intense. PSE CEO Mary Kipp sat down with Gov. Jay Inslee last week² on how to get the bill across the finish line.

Here’s why you should care about this: PSE figures the war that Inslee and climate activists have been waging against most uses of natural gas is already lost and is looking to win the electrification peace. That means finding a way to make money by riding a wave of conversion from gas to electricity that will also help the company meet the decarbonization requirements imposed by the Legislature in recent years.