Washington § 70A.535.140 - Joint legislative audit and review committee analysis. (Expires June 30, 2030.)

(1) By December 1, 2030, the joint legislative audit and review committee must analyze the impacts of the initial five years of clean fuels program implementation and must submit a report summarizing the analysis to the legislature. The analysis must include, at minimum, the following components:

(a) Costs and benefits, including environmental and public health costs and benefits, associated with this chapter for categories of persons participating in the clean fuels program or that are most impacted by air pollution, as defined in consultation with the departments of ecology and health and as measured on a census tract scale. This component of the analysis must, at minimum, assess the costs and benefits of changes in the following metrics since the start of the program:

(i) Levels of greenhouse gas emissions and criteria air pollutants for which the United States environmental protection agency has established national ambient air quality standards;

(ii) Fuel prices; and

(iii) Total employment in categories of industries generating credits or deficits. The categories of industries assessed must include but are not limited to electric utilities, oil refineries, and other industries involved in the production of high carbon fuels, industries involved in the delivery and sale of high carbon fuels, biofuel refineries, and industries involved in the delivery and sale of low carbon fuels;

(b) An evaluation of the information calculated and provided by the department under RCW 70A.535.090(1);

(c) A summary of the estimated total statewide costs and benefits attributable to the clean fuels program, including state agency administrative costs and regulated entity compliance costs. For purposes of calculating the benefits of the program, the summary may rely, in part, on a constant value of the social costs attributable to greenhouse gas emissions, as identified in contemporary internationally accepted estimates of such global social cost. This summary must include an estimate of the total statewide costs of the program per ton of greenhouse gas emissions reductions achieved by the clean fuels program;

(d) An evaluation of the impacts of the program on low-income households; and

(e) The outcomes of proposals to site biofuel facilities through the energy facility site evaluation council review process that is allowed by *RCW 80.50.060(2).

(2) This section expires June 30, 2030.

*Reviser's note: RCW 80.50.060 was amended by 2022 c 183 s 6, deleting subsection (2).

Severability—2021 c 317: See note following RCW 70A.535.005.