Commerce and UTC brief senators on fuel‑mix disclosures, CETA implementation and resource‑adequacy concerns

At a committee work session, the Department of Commerce and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) briefed senators on fuel‑mix disclosure practices and the status of implementing the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), highlighting remaining technical and market challenges.

“Before 2019, there was unspecified electricity, but it didn’t show up in the disclosure,” Glenn Blackman, director of the Energy Policy Office at the Department of Commerce, told the committee. “We reached the conclusion that it would be better just to say it. If you don’t know it, then just say you don’t know it.” The “unspecified” category reflects wholesale trading and contract practices where the fuel source for a block of power is not tracked or the environmental attributes (RECs) are separated from the energy purchase.

Commerce described how fuel‑mix disclosure reports provide a consumption‑side view of where electricity serving Washington customers comes from (hydro, wind, natural gas, coal, unspecified, etc.). The agency stressed the difference between power generated in Washington and power used to serve Washington customers, noting hydro generation is often shared regionally through Bonneville and other transfers.

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