Washington House approve bill to give Spokane’s energy-generating trash incinerator more time

OLYMPIA – The state House of Representatives has approved legislation that exempts Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy plant from compliance with emission reduction targets laid out in the Climate Commitment Act and gives the facility a longer runway to reduce pollution.

Without action by state lawmakers this session, city officials warned they would be forced to spend millions annually because of the facility’s carbon emissions.

The bill passed 67-30. It now heads to the state Senate for consideration.

In a statement Tuesday, Mayor Lisa Brown said the bill’s passage in the House was a “big accomplishment.”

“I’m grateful to Rep. (Natasha) Hill and Rep. (Beth) Doglio, who have been working hard to get us to this point,” Brown said. “We’ve had productive conversations with environmental organizations at the state and local level, and we are looking forward to keeping that positive momentum going as this moves to the Senate.”

Under the bill, the facility would still be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but on a longer timeline. The legislation states it must reduce emissions by 20 % between 2030 and 2039, by 70% between 2040 and 2049 and 95% each year after 2050.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Natasha Hill, D-Spokane, who said Tuesday the legislation would give the facility more equitable treatment under the CCA.

“While it hasn’t been easy to figure out, this bill reflects the dedication of our great city, knowledgeable stakeholders, and trusted members working together,” Hill said Tuesday.

Hill added that the facility is “one of a kind.”

“It’s what we may call a unicorn. But this isn’t a mythical creature anymore. We invested in this, and now it is a very strong workhorse,” Hill said. “There’s nothing else in our state like it, and so we shouldn’t treat it like anything else in our state.”

A previous version of the legislation would have established no-cost carbon credits for the facility in a state auction.

That idea, however, received pushback in committee from environmental groups who said there was no requirement in the legislation for the facility to actually reduce emissions.

The facility is the only one of its kind in the state, burning the city’s garbage and using the heat produced to generate enough electricity to power 11,000 homes.

The facility produced more than 234,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2019, though the state would only penalize roughly 100,000 tons of carbon emissions.

The greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program of the Climate Commitment Act exempts landfills, which produce emissions as waste decomposes, but the Waste-to-Energy facility received no such grace from lawmakers.

If the city were to enter the state’s auction for credits for those 100,000 tons, it could come with a cost of $2.5 million to $8 million each year. Costs vary widely due in part to wide swings in the cost for carbon credits through the state market in a given quarter.

City officials feared those extra costs would have to be borne by ratepayers and the city’s other customers, if it would even still pencil out, Marlene Feist, director of the city’s Public Works division, said in a December interview.

“If it’s too costly to run the facility, at some point, we have to run the numbers,” she said. “It would be difficult to keep operating with the burden of the (Climate Commitment Act) costs.”

Reporter Emry Dinman contributed to this report