wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 1715 > Original Bill
The joint legislative audit and review committee shall review and report on the costs to state and local public agencies to comply with the state energy performance standard established in this chapter.
The committee must identify:
By covered building tier and required compliance year: (i) The number of covered buildings required to meet the standard; (ii) the number and percentage of covered buildings in compliance with the standard; (iii) the number and percentage of covered buildings not in compliance with the standard; and (iv) for buildings not in compliance with the standard, a breakdown illustrating which elements of the standard are not met, including energy management planning, benchmarking, and reporting requirements;
By fiscal year, fines levied against state and local agencies for noncompliance with the standard;
By fiscal year, beginning with state fiscal year 2020, the department of commerce expenditures for overseeing compliance with the standard; and
By fiscal year, beginning with state fiscal year 2020, capital and operating budget funding appropriated and awarded to state and local agencies for the purpose of or supporting compliance with the energy performance standard. Examples of such appropriations may include funding for submetering, energy use planning, benchmarking and reporting activities, heating and cooling upgrades, other improvements for the purpose of increasing building energy efficiency, and other appropriations as determined by the committee.
For a sample of tier 1 and tier 2 covered buildings owned by state and local public agencies, the committee must:
By fiscal year, beginning in state fiscal year 2020, compile state and local expenditures for complying with the standard;
Analyze trends of completed energy audits based on: (i) Reported or average ages of the covered buildings; (ii) covered building type, by category; and (iii) an estimate of the projected costs of required capital upgrades required to come into compliance with the standard;
Identify sources of potential state, federal, and local funding available to implement the required capital upgrades; and
Estimate the extent to which the standard is achieving or will achieve the intended reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for state and local public agencies.
Building type categories for the purposes of the analysis required under subsection (2)(b) of this section must be determined by the committee. Examples of building type categories may include office buildings, schools, correctional facilities, courthouses, hospitals, libraries, and others.
When selecting the sample of buildings, the committee must include: Buildings from the east and west side of the state, buildings representing a broad selection of building type categories, and a mix of state and locally owned buildings.
The department of commerce must provide all relevant data to the committee for the purposes of completing the interim and final reports.
By December 1, 2027, the joint legislative audit and review committee must submit an interim report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the legislature that identifies data sources, the proposed approach for selecting the sample of buildings, and potential methodologies. The committee must submit a final report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the legislature by December 1, 2030.
This section expires January 1, 2032.