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City administrator outlines Climate Commitment Act costs, options for municipal gas utility
Summary
City Administrator Chris Searcy gave a lengthy March 9 workshop explaining how Washington’s Climate Commitment Act affects Uniontown’s municipal gas utility — noting the utility is narrowly over the 25,000‑ton threshold, describing customer bill impacts (legacy vs. non‑legacy), estimating current compliance costs and asking the council for policy guidance and possible legislative collaboration.
City Administrator Chris Searcy told the Uniontown City Council on March 9 that the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) — Washington’s cap‑and‑invest program — is law and that the city’s municipal natural‑gas utility is “just marginally over the threshold” that pulls it into the program.
Searcy said the utility’s average emissions for 2023–25 were a little over 25,000 metric tons, meaning the city must obtain carbon allowances and participate in auctions. “We are just marginally over the threshold of being pulled into the program,” he said, adding that Ecology can keep a covered entity in the program if it remains within 10% of the threshold.
Why it matters: the CCA requires covered entities to acquire allowances equal to their greenhouse‑gas emissions; some allowances are provided at no…
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