Drafter
Clerk 08/13/2015
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to the King County Metro transit carbon offset program; and amending Ordinance 17971, Section 2, and K.C.C. 28.30.010, and Ordinance 17971, Section 4, and K.C.C. 28.30.030.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County Metro transit operates a fleet of one hundred fifty-nine electric trolley buses in the city of Seattle. Beginning in 2016, it will also operate two battery buses and may operate significantly more in the future.
2. The electric trolley buses have over twenty million boardings per year and are a major component of the public transportation system.
3. The electric trolley bus fleet consumes an estimated eighteen million kilowatt hours of electricity each year, from renewably-derived electricity sources.
4. The transmitted 2015 King County Strategic Climate Action Plan reports that Metro transit has been exploring options to monetize the use and savings of fuel resources to operate its fleets, such as selling credits from the use of renewable or low carbon fuels.
5. Under the United States Environmental Protection Agency Renewable Fuel Standard Program, transit agencies can monetize the environmental attributes associated with the operation of a trolley fleet and battery-operated buses by creating a renewable identification number.
6. Metro transit has the potential to generate renewable identification numbers, which can be sold to a third party, based on the consumption of renewably-generated electricity used to power transit's trolley buses, future battery buses and other modes of transportation.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Ordinance 17971, Section 2, and K.C.C. 28.30.010 are each hereby amended to read as follows:
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
A. "Additionality" means the principle of achieving net greenhouse gas emissions savings over and above those that would have...

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