The Washington Public Utility Districts Association (WPUDA) has selected Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, R-Goldendale, as the recipient of its 2022 Legislative Champion Award. The award honors a member from the Washington State Legislature or United States Congress for their commitment to Public Utility Districts (PUDs).
“This award recognizes your strong commitment to advocating in the 2022 legislative session for policies that enhance the ability of public utility districts to serve the needs of their communities,” said George Caan, WPUDA executive director, in a letter to Mosbrucker. “Your leadership as sponsor of House Bill 1623, addressing the risks of rolling blackouts and inadequacy events, demonstrated your expertise in utilizing a collaborative approach between stakeholders and state agencies to address the risk of power disruptions.”
House Bill 1623 sought to ensure the state continually plans to help avoid energy blackouts, brownouts or other inadequacies of the electric grid. Despite its unanimous approval by 147 Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, the bill was vetoed in its entirety on March 31 by Gov. Jay Inslee.
“I am very honored and humbled the Washington Public Utility Districts Association has named me for this award. The real champions across the state are the men and women who work every day to keep our lights on, warm our homes, and power our state’s economy,” said Mosbrucker.
Mosbrucker plans to reintroduce her electric grid reliability bill in the 2023 session.
“I believe we need to have policies in place to ensure the integrity of our entire electrical grid, not just wind and solar. As the governor’s climate policies place more demands on electrical energy, we must set plans in place to modernize our energy system for the near and long-term future to meet these demands,” Mosbrucker added. “I will work with the governor’s office to make sure my electric grid legislation clears his desk if we can get it through the Legislature in the coming session. This is too important to the people I serve not to continue this fight in the 2023 session.”
WPUDA represents 27 nonprofit, community-owned utilities that provide electricity, water and wastewater services, telecommunications, renewable natural gas and renewable hydrogen to nearly a million residential, business, and industrial customers in communities across Washington state.
The scheduled 105-day legislative session begins Jan. 9 in Olympia.