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| Source: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections [1] | ||||||||||
| Elections in Washington |
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Ballot Initiative 937 (official name Initiative measure no. 937, known as I-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. [2]
The initiative requires large utilities to obtain 15% of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind (but excluding hydro) by 2020 with incremental steps of 3% by 2012 and 9% by 2016. It also requires that utilities undertake all cost-effective energy conservation. [3]
Similar legislation has been enacted in at least 20 other states including the following. (The table is sorted by date and then by descending percentage. I-937 is included in bold.)
| State | Name | Enacted | Percentage | By | Comments/Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 30% | 2000 | |||
| Arizona | 1.1% | 2007 | |||
| Massachusetts | 4% | 2009 | |||
| Connecticut | 10% | 2010 | |||
| Iowa | ~10% | 2010 | |||
| New Mexico | 10% | 2011 | |||
| New York | 24% | 2013 | |||
| Nevada | 20% | 2015 | |||
| Minnesota | 19% | 2015 | |||
| Montana | 15% | 2015 | |||
| Colorado | Amendment 37 | 2004 | 10% | 2015 | First ballot initiative [4] |
| Texas | ~4.2% | 2015 | 5.88 GW | ||
| California | 20% | 2017 | |||
| Rhode Island | 16% | 2019 | |||
| Delaware | 10% | 2019 | |||
| Maryland | 7.5% | 2019 | |||
| New Jersey | 22.5% | 2020 | |||
| Hawaii | 20% | 2020 | |||
| Washington | I-937 | 15% | 2020 | ||
| Washington, D.C. | 11% | 2022 | |||
| Pennsylvania | 8% | 2020 |
Unless indicated otherwise, data are from [5]
Supporters included the following: [6]
Opponents included many small co-op electrical providers (even though the initiative affects only utilities with greater than 25,000 customers) as well as the following: [7]
Portland General Electric (PGE) is a Fortune 1000 public utility based in Portland, Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - 44% of the inhabitants of Oregon. Founded in 1888 as the Willamette Falls Electric Company, the company has been an independent company for most of its existence, though was briefly owned by the Houston-based Enron Corporation from 1997 until 2006 when Enron divested itself of PGE during its bankruptcy.
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