The first cutoff looms

Some bills facing the deadline axe, and some recommended reading

Wednesday marks the first in a series of pivotal deadlines for bills in the Legislature. Most¹ would-be laws must be voted out of their first policy committees by the end of that day, or they die for the session. As of this writing, the fates of dozens of bills hang in the balance. We take a look at a few of them:

Shaming Big Oil: Senate Bill 6052 is Gov. Jay Inslee’s response to the high gas prices widely blamed on the cap-and-trade scheme imposed by the Climate Commitment Act. Sponsored by Sen. Joe Nğuyen, D-Seattle, at Inslee’s behest, it would create a new division of the Utilities and Transportation Commission, which would goad Big Petroleum to report and retain info on industry supply, prices, and maintenance. The idea is to drag the industry’s profit margins further into the sunlight and tie them to gas prices. SB 6052 is slated for potential action on Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Environment, Energy & Technology, where Nguyen holds the gavel.

Photo courtesy of Sen. Joe Nğuyen’s Instagram page.