SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE:  The Democrats voted to completely gut I-937. Progressives in the House Democratic caucus initially tried to save the renewable energy initiative by supporting a poison GOP amendment from Republican Minority Leader Rep. Richard DeBolt (R-20, Centralia, Olympia) that they thought would make the Democratic majority vote against the bill in the end.

But their plan backfired: The bill passed 57-40, and thanks to the Rep. DeBolt amendment (which allows hydro to be counted as a renewable resource) the legislation now completely guts the voter-approved initiative to promote renewable energy alternatives.

Of course, the bill still has to go back to the Senate, and the sneaky House progressives who voted for the DeBolt amendment—Reps. Dave Upthegrove, Jamie Pedersen, Hans Dunshee, Zach Hudgins, Geoff Simpson, and Brendan Williams (giving it the 50 plus it needed to pass)—might prove to brilliant after all. If the Democratic Senate refuses to concur with the anti-Green bill, the bill will be forced into conference, where leadership can simply revert to the original compromise  that they agreed on earlier in the session that enviros liked. 

"I'm confident Senator Brown [who worked on the original compromise] will not support a bill that guts I-937," says Rep. Upthegrove—who helped orchestrate Friday's progressive plot. "She's a woman of her word."  Sen. Lisa Brown is the  Senate Majority Leader.   

Original post from Friday afternoon:

The House Democrats in Olympia are currently caucusing over what to do with a Senate measure that would amend the voter-approved renewable energy initiative, I-937. 

If the House hadn't taken up the bill today (cut off day), the legislation—which would allow some utilities to get a pass on the voter mandate to  increase renewable resources—would have died.

Initially, the House had strong misgivings about the bill. But they struck a compromise on the bill in late March.  Environmental lobbyists—also strongly opposed to the initial bill—signed off on that compromise.

Since then, however,  the bill has been in limbo, and Green lobbyists have become increasingly nervous that Senate leadership—Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown is an adamant supporter of the legislation—was nudging the bill away from the terms of the compromise by giving utilities more ways to avoid living up to the voter mandate.

Sen. Brown crashed this afternoon's House Democratic caucus meeting. As did Governor Gregoire, who has been more sympathetic to I-937 supporters than Sen. Brown.

At this stage in the game, Brown certainly has more chits than the governor (i.e., she has the power to sign off on House demands in the budget reconciliation process). And that doesn't bode well for those who want to keep the renewable energy initiative intact.