HB2518 – Minimizing leaks in natural gas pipelines.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Shewmake (D; 42nd District; Whatcom County) (Co-sponsors Ybarra, Boehnke, Tarleton, Mead, Fitzgibbon, Lekanoff, Ramel, Callan, Peterson, Slatter, Davis, Doglio, Pollet, and Cody)
Current status –
In the House – Passed
Amended and passed the House Committee on Environment & Energy January 30th. Referred to Appropriations; had a hearing there on February 10th. A 2nd substitute passed out of Appropriations February 11th. Referred to Rules. Amended on the floor by the prime sponsor and passed by the House February 16th.

In the Senate – Passed
Referred to the Senate Committee on Environment, Energy & Technology. Had a hearing February 20th; passed out of committee February 25th, and referred to Rules. Passed by the Senate March 5th.
Next step would be – Signature by the Governor.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.
(A House bill analysis is available.)

Comments –
The substitute requires the UTC to provide conditions for the recovery of interim costs between rate cases. It removes the list of values required in cost-benefit analyses, and reduces some reporting requirements. It exempts proprietary data, trade secrets, and information that would adversely affect public safety from public disclosure.

The 2nd substitute no longer counts emissions from intentional releases or operational practices as leaks that have to be included in the annual reports to the UTC, but it still requires the Commission to estimate emissions associated with operational practices along with those from leaks, apparently by using information that’s already being reported, or by ordering additional information from the companies. The floor amendment in the House made some minor adjustments in details.

Summary –
Requires the Utilities and Transportation Commission to begin a proceeding to increase
the certainty that utilities will recover the costs associated with measures approved by the commission that they undertake to reduce hazardous leaks and fugitive emissions from their gas pipelines.

Gas companies can submit proposed projects and changes to operational procedures to reduce hazardous leaks and nonhazardous fugitive releases, ranked according to risk, severity, and complexity to the UTC. These proposals must include a cost-effectiveness analysis and propose one of several ways of calculating a cap for the annual expenditures that would be recoverable through a mechanism to be approved by the commission. The cost-effectiveness analysis has to include: The value of the leaked gas; the cost of greenhouse gas emissions associated with that, calculated in accordance with a Federal standard which currently works out to $65/metric ton; the value of the reduction in risk from gas leaks; and the cost of the measures. The proposal must also address the expected impact to ratepayers and other factors the commission may require.

Beginning July 1, 2020, each gas pipeline company has to submit a report to the UTC on
the environmental and economic performance of its system, including all known leaks from transmission and distribution pipelines, and from all components, including pumps, valves, pipes, and pneumatic devices. Reports must include a sizable list of items, including a plan for fixing leaks, plus any others the UTC requires. The Commission is to produce an estimate of pipeline leakage in 1990, and an annual report for Ecology based on this current data, including the total volume of leaked gas and its market value; the volume and value of leaks that have not been fixed and of those the company does not intend to fix; and a projected timeline of the expected reductions from the plans submitted by gas companies. ( The report is also to review of opportunities and obstacles to reducing gas leakage statewide, including workforce availability, infrastructure investments, permitting, technical and legal obstacles, and any other  information the Commission decides is relevant.)

The bill specifies that the emissions from pipelines reported to the UTC by gas companies are to be included in the Department of Commerce’s biannual estimate of the State’s current greenhouse gas emissions.