Washington Supreme Court Strikes Down Gas-Use Preservation Initiative
A split Washington Supreme Court ruling on September 17, 2026 voided 2024's Initiative 2066, the voter measure meant to preserve natural gas use, sharpening questions on state limits on local climate and electrification policy.
On September 17, 2026, the Washington Supreme Court issued a split decision in Climate Solutions v. State of Washington striking down Initiative 2066, a 2024 voter-approved measure designed to preserve the use of natural gas in Washington. The available reporting does not set out the full reasoning, the precise statutory basis, or the scope of any remedy, so the holding's contours should be confirmed against the slip opinion before it is relied on.
Why sophisticated counsel should care: an initiative enacted by direct popular vote — a mechanism Washington uses unusually often — has now been invalidated by the state's highest court. Whatever the doctrinal route, the decision will be read widely by utilities, municipal governments and clean-energy developers as a data point on how far Washington will allow statewide limits to constrain or displace local climate, building-electrification and gas-consumption policy. It also lands in a period of active state-level preemption litigation, where comparable initiatives are being contested elsewhere.
Concrete next steps: read the opinion for its preemption and rights-based reasoning and the vote line; assess exposure for pending or planned local ordinances and utility compliance programs; and monitor whether the State seeks rehearing or clarification, and whether other 2024 energy initiatives in the region face comparable challenges.