Washington Administrative Code › Title 173 - Ecology, Department of (See also Titles 197, 317, 372, and 508) › Chapter 173-441 - Reporting of emissions of greenhouse gases › Section 173-441-020 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter
				unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1)
Definitions specific to this
			 chapter:
(a) "      40 C.F.R. Part 98      " or "
			  40 C.F.R. § 98  " means the United States Environmental Protection Agency's
			 Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting regulation including any applicable
			 subparts. All references are adopted by reference as if it was copied into this
			 rule. References mentioned in this rule are adopted as they exist on February
			 9, 2022, or the adoption date in WAC
			 173-400-025(1),
			 whichever is later.
(b) "Asset
			 controlling supplier" or "ACS" means any entity that owns or operates
			 interconnected electricity generating facilities or serves as an exclusive
			 marketer for these facilities even though it does not own them, and has been
			 designated by the department and received a department-published emissions
			 factor for the wholesale electricity procured from its system. Electricity from
			 an asset controlling supplier is considered a specified source of
			 electricity.
(c) "Biomass" means
			 nonfossilized and biodegradable organic material originating from plants,
			 animals, or microorganisms, including products, by-products, residues and waste
			 from agriculture, forestry, and related industries as well as the nonfossilized
			 and biodegradable organic fractions of industrial and municipal wastes,
			 including gases and liquids recovered from the decomposition of nonfossilized
			 and biodegradable organic material.
(d) "Carbon dioxide equivalent" or
			 "CO2e" means a metric measure used to compare the
			 emissions from various greenhouse gases based upon their global warming
			 potential.
(e) "Director" means the
			 director of the department of ecology.
(f) "Ecology" means the Washington state
			 department of ecology.
(g)
			 "Electric power entity" includes any of the following that supply electric
			 power in Washington:
(i) Electricity importers
			 and exporters;
(ii) retail
			 providers, including multi jurisdictional retail providers; and
(iii) the asset controlling suppliers. See
			 WAC 173-441-124 for more detail.
(h) "Facility" unless otherwise specified in
			 WAC 173-441-122, 173-441-124, or any subpart of 40 C.F.R. Part 98 as adopted in
			 WAC
			 173-441-120,
			 means any physical property, plant, building, structure, source, or stationary
			 equipment located on one or more contiguous or adjacent properties in actual
			 physical contact or separated solely by a public roadway or other public right
			 of way and under common ownership or common control, that emits or may emit any
			 greenhouse gas. Operators of military installations may classify such
			 installations as more than a single facility based on distinct and independent
			 functional groupings within contiguous military properties.
(i) "Fuel products" means petroleum products,
			 biomass-de-rived fuels, coal-based liquid fuels, natural gas, biogas, and
			 liquid petroleum gas as established in 40 C.F.R. Part 98 Subparts LL through
			 NN. Renewable or biogenic versions of fuel products listed in Tables MM-1 or
			 NN-1 of 40 C.F.R. Part 98 are also considered fuel products. Assume complete
			 combustion or oxidation of fuel products when calculating GHG
			 emissions.
(j) "Fuel supplier"
			 means any of the following suppliers of fuel products: (See WAC 173-441-122 for
			 more detail.)
(i) A supplier of fossil fuel
			 other than natural gas, including:
(A) A
			 supplier of petroleum products;
(B)
			 A supplier of liquid petroleum gas;
(C) A supplier of coal-based liquid fuels.
(ii) A supplier of
			 biomass-derived fuels;
(iii) A
			 supplier of natural gas, including:
(A)
			 Operators of interstate and intrastate pipelines;
(B) Suppliers of liquefied or compressed
			 natural gas;
(C) Natural gas liquid
			 fractionators;
(D) Local
			 distribution companies.
(k) "Greenhouse gas," "greenhouse gases,"
			 "GHG," and "GHGs" includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,
			 hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Beginning on
			 January 1, 2012, "greenhouse gas" also includes any other gas or gases
			 designated by ecology by rule in Table A-1 in WAC
			 173-441-040.
(l) "Operator" means any individual or
			 organization who operates or supervises a facility, supplier, or electric power
			 entity. The operator of an electric power entity may be the electric power
			 entity itself.
(m) "Owner" means
			 any individual or organization who has legal or equitable title to, has a
			 leasehold interest in, or control of a facility, supplier, or electric power
			 entity, except an individual or organization whose legal or equitable title to
			 or leasehold interest in the facility, supplier, or electric power entity
			 arises solely because the person is a limited partner in a partnership that has
			 legal or equitable title to, has a leasehold interest in, or control of the
			 facility, supplier, or electric power entity shall not be considered an "owner"
			 of the facility, supplier, or electric power entity.
(n) "Person" includes the owner or operator
			 of:
(i) A facility;
(ii) A supplier; or
(iii) An electric power entity.
(o) "Product data" means data
			 related to a facility's production that is part of the annual GHG
			 report.
(p) "Reporter" means any of
			 the following subject to this chapter:
(i) A
			 facility;
(ii) A supplier;
			 or
(iii) An electric power
			 entity.
(q) "Supplier"
			 means any person who is a:
(i) Fuel supplier
			 that produces, imports, or delivers, or any combination of producing,
			 importing, or delivering, fuel products in Washington; and
(ii) Supplier of carbon dioxide that
			 produces, imports, or delivers a quantity of carbon dioxide in Washington that,
			 if released, would result in emissions in
			 Washington.