Washington Administrative Code

(1) A registered entity who has been notified by ecology that one or more bids by the registered entity have been successful in an auction shall pay, in the form and manner approved by ecology, the amount set out in the notice to the financial services administrator no later than…

(1) No later than 45 days following the conclusion of the auction, ecology shall make available to the public a written summary of each auction, setting out the following information:(a) The auction settlement price;(b) The registered entities to whom ecology gave permission to p…

(1) Two times per year, ecology shall hold parallel auctions of future vintage allowances.(2) Auctions of future vintage allowances shall follow the procedure set out in WAC 173-446-310 through 173-446-362.(3) For each auction of future vintage allowances, ecology will submit for…

(1) Ecology shall maintain an allowance price containment reserve account.(a) Allowances in the allowance price containment reserve have no vintage and are therefore eligible to be submitted for compliance at any time.(b) Allowances purchased from the allowance price containment …

(1) Ecology shall maintain an emissions containment reserve account containing the following allowances: (a) Allowances amounting to two percent of the annual allowance budgets for years 2023 through 2026.(b) Allowances submitted by ecology for auction that are unsold after being…

(1) Immediately prior to the deadline for compliance for each compliance period, in the event that no allowances remain in the allowance price containment reserve, ecology shall issue price ceiling units for sale at the ceiling price to covered entities that do not have sufficien…

(1) Price ceiling unit sales shall only be held between the last allowance price containment reserve auction before the compliance deadline for a compliance period and the compliance period deadline itself.(2) Price ceiling units shall be sold at the ceiling price.(3) Price ceili…

Records containing the following information are confidential and are exempt from public disclosure in their entirety:(1) Bidding information as identified in WAC 173-446-317;(2) Information contained in the secure, online electronic tracking system for compliance instruments;(3)…

(1) A compliance instrument can satisfy a covered or opt-in entity's compliance obligation arising from the emission of one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent in one calendar year. A compliance instrument does not expire, and may be held or banked. Once surrendered, a compli…

(1) Every registered entity wishing to trade compliance instruments with another party registered in Washington's program or with a party registered in an external GHG ETS to which Washington has linked must follow the procedures outlined below.(a) To initiate the transfer, a tra…

Each transaction request submitted under WAC 173-446-410 must contain the following information:(1) The holding account number of the transferor;(2) The holding account number of the transferee;(3) The quantity, type and, where applicable, vintage of the compliance instruments to…

(1) Every registered entity wishing to transfer compliance instruments from the registered entity's holding account to its compliance account must send ecology a request including:(a) The registered entity's holding account number and its compliance account number; and(b) The qua…

(1) An electric utility wishing to transfer no cost allowances to the compliance account of an electrical generating facility or federal power marketing administration may submit a request to ecology asking for the transfer and providing the following information:(a) The electric…

(1) A utility wishing to consign no cost allowances to auction must transfer those no cost allowances from its holding account to its limited use holding account by submitting a request to ecology asking for the transfer and providing the following information:(a) The utility's h…

(1) Other than the account representatives directly involved in a transaction, no party holding confidential or privileged information on a compliance instrument may trade that compliance instrument, disclose the information or recommend that another party trade the compliance in…

(1) In order to ensure an offset credit can be used as a compliance instrument under this chapter, an offset project operator or authorized project designee must demonstrate that the ecology offset credits and/or registry offset credits generated by its offset project meet the fo…

(1) In order for ecology to adopt an offset protocol as a compliance offset protocol the offset protocol must:(a) Accurately determine the extent to which GHG emission reductions and GHG removal enhancements are achieved by the offset project type;(b) Establish data collection an…

(1) General requirements for offset projects. In order to ensure that offset credits generated by an offset project can be used as compliance instruments under this chapter, an offset project operator or authorized project designee must ensure that the offset project:(a) Meets al…

(1) General requirements for designation of authorized project designee. An offset project operator may designate a party as an authorized project designee at the time of offset project listing or any time after offset project listing as long as the offset project operator meets …

(1) Registration requirements for offset project operators or authorized project designees who are submitting an offset project for listing. Before an offset project can be listed by ecology or an offset project registry, the party with legal authority to implement the offset pro…

(1) General requirements for monitoring equipment for offset projects. The offset project operator or authorized project designee must employ the procedures set forth in the applicable compliance offset protocol for monitoring measurements and project performance for offset proje…

(1) General requirements. An offset project operator or authorized project designee must obtain the services of an ecology-accredited verification body for the purposes of verifying its offset project data reports.(2) Schedule for verification of nonsequestration offset projects.…

(1) Rotation of verification bodies. An offset project shall have no more than any six out of nine consecutive reporting periods verified by the same verification body or offset verification team member(s), unless otherwise specified. The rotation requirements in this section are…

Accreditation of offset verification bodies and offset verifiers for the purpose of verifying offset project data reports under WAC 173-446-535 must be achieved separately from accreditation for the purpose of verifying reports submitted under chapter 173-441 WAC. (1) An offset v…

(1) The conflict of interest provisions of this section shall apply to verification bodies, lead verifiers, and offset verifiers accredited by ecology to perform offset verification services for offset project operators, and authorized project designees, if applicable, as well as…

(1) One registry offset credit, which represents one metric ton of CO2e for a direct GHG emission reduction or direct GHG removal enhancement, will be issued pursuant to this section only if:(a) An offset project registry has listed the offset project;(b) The GHG emission reducti…

(1) One ecology offset credit, which represents one metric ton of CO2e for a direct GHG emission reduction or direct GHG removal enhancement, will be issued only for a GHG emission reduction or GHG removal enhancement that occurs during a reporting period. One ecology offset cred…

(1) Ecology will issue ecology offset credits for GHG emission reductions and GHG removal enhancements achieved in a reporting period by an offset project that meets the requirements of WAC 173-446-555 (1) and (2) to the ecology issuance account, no later than 15 calendar days af…

Ecology will register an ecology offset credit by:(1) Creating a unique ecology serial number and assigning it to the ecology offset credit; and(2) Transferring the ecology offset credit to the holding account(s) of the listed offset project operator, authorized project designee,…

(1) For forest sequestration projects, a portion of ecology offset credits issued to the offset project operator will be placed by ecology into the forest buffer account.(a) The number of ecology offset credits that must be placed in the forest buffer account shall be determined …

(1) An ecology offset credit may be sold, traded, or transferred, unless:(a) It has been retired, used for compliance, or used to meet any GHG mitigation requirements in any voluntary or regulatory program;(b) It resides in the forest buffer account; or(c) It has been invalidated…

(1) An ecology offset credit issued under this chapter will remain valid unless invalidated pursuant to this section.(2) Time frame for invalidation. If a determination is made pursuant to subsection (6) of this section, ecology may invalidate an ecology offset credit pursuant to…

(1) The approval requirements specified in this section apply to all offset project registries that will operate to provide offset registry services under this chapter.(2) Ecology may approve offset project registries that meet and maintain compliance with the requirements specif…

(1) The offset project registry shall use compliance offset protocols approved pursuant to the requirements of this section to determine whether an offset project may be listed with the offset project registry for issuance of registry offset credits. The offset project registry m…

(1) Offset projects that are located within the state of Washington, or that reduce or avoid GHG emissions that would otherwise occur within the state of Washington, are presumed to provide direct environmental benefits in the state.(2) For any offset project located outside the …

(1) All covered entities and opt-in entities must comply with all requirements for monitoring, reporting, participating in auctions, and holding and transferring compliance instruments, as well as all other provisions of this chapter. All general market participants must comply w…

(1) If a covered or opt-in entity does not have sufficient compliance instruments in its compliance account to meet its compliance obligation by the compliance deadlines specified in WAC 173-446-600 (3) and (4), it has violated its compliance obligation and correction is not poss…

Unless otherwise specified, all requests, notifications, and communications to ecology pursuant to this chapter, must be submitted in a format as specified by ecology to either of the following:For U.S. mail:Climate Commitment Act ProgramAir Quality ProgramDepartment of ecologyP.…

If any provision of the rule or its application to any covered entity or other person or party or circumstances is held invalid, the remainder of the rule or application of the provision to other covered entities or other persons or parties or circumstances is not affected.[Statu…

This rule establishes objective criteria for both emissions' intensity and trade exposure for the purpose of identifying emissions-intensive and trade-exposed facilities.[Statutory Authority: 2021 c 316. WSR 22-13-002 (Order 21-05), § 173-446A-010, filed 6/1/22, effective 7/2/22.…

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise. If a section does not provide a definition, the definition found in the definitions from chapter 316, Laws of 2021, and from chapter 173-441 WAC apply in order of preceden…

The provisions of this chapter apply to manufacturing facilities that are covered entities under chapter 316, Laws of 2021 (the Climate Commitment Act) regarding classification as emissions-intensive and trade-exposed.(1) Facilities classified as emissions-intensive and trade-exp…

An owner or operator of a manufacturing facility that is not classified as emissions-intensive and trade-exposed according to WAC 173-446A-030 may petition the department to be classified as emissions-intensive and trade-exposed by following the process described in this section.…

If any provision of this chapter or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the chapter or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.[Statutory Authority: 2021 c 316. WSR 22-13-002 (Order 21-05), § 1…

(1) RCW 70A.65.300 requires the department of ecology (ecology) to submit to the appropriate committees of the legislature an annual report that identifies all distributions of money from the accounts created in RCW 70A.65.240 through 70A.65.280. The department must require by ru…

The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise. For those terms not listed in this section, the definitions found in chapter 70A.65 RCW apply in this chapter.(1) "Appropriation" means funding provided by the Washington …

By June 30th of each year, ecology will notify recipients of the manner and date by which they must submit their data for the upcoming fiscal year.[Statutory Authority: Chapter 70A.65 RCW. WSR 24-21-037 (Order 22-18), s 173-446B-030, filed 10/8/24, effective 11/8/24.]

(1) A recipient must report the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions projected to be reduced if ecology has approved a methodology and calculator tool for an applicable expenditure category, as described in WAC 173-446B-060.(2) Expenditures for which recipients are not required t…

(1) For each appropriation, recipients must provide the following information:(a) What is the appropriation title?(b) What is the purpose of the appropriation?(c) What is the geographic location of the appropriation (if not reported under subsection (2) of this section)? If the a…

(1) For each category of expenditure that is expected to produce verifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or other long-term impact(s) to emissions, ecology will, in consultation with the recipient, either:(a) Identify the appropriate California air resources board metho…