Gov. Jay Inslee speaks to members of the press on Jan. 4, ahead of the 2024 Washington state legislative session. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
Gov. Jay Inslee’s drive to require oil companies to reveal more about their gasoline prices and profits ended Monday when a bill to impose new transparency rules on the industry lapsed in a Senate budget committee.
The legislation, a priority request of the governor in his final year, died in the Ways and Means Committee amid concerns over its $15 million cost and the state’s ability to shield confidential data collected from firms from theft by cyber criminals.
“ The bill as drafted gets us in the right direction but also the right direction is very expensive,” said Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-White Center, the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5062 , who sought to steer it through a gauntlet of opposition from the industry.
“Obviously I care about the bill. The governor cares about the bill,” he said. “The policy itself is good. At the end of the day, there were valid concerns we would need to address in the bill. To do it right, that does take an amount of resources that we don’t necessarily have in this cycle.”