ceta

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, provisionally went into effect in September 2017 after all EU governments agreed to it, but its full implementation requires approval by each national parliament.

French senators’ vote comes after farmers across France and Europe demonstrated on their tractors earlier this year in protests over low earnings, heavy regulation and what they call unfair competition from abroad, often criticizing free-trade agreements, including the CETA.

While Macron’s centrist alliance advocated for the CETA, conservative and leftist senators joined their votes to reject the ratification bill.

Some utilities like Puget Sound Energy and PacifiCorp, which services parts of the Yakima Valley, will have a heavier lift to comply with the CETA, said Glenn Blackmon, the Washington Department of Commerce’s energy policy director.

“The bottom line is,” Johnson said, “we have thousands of megawatts of new generation that we need to acquire to meet CETA, the bulk of which needs to be done by 2030. We strongly believe we have to accelerate the acquisition of those and it will take every tool in the toolbox to realize our clean energy future.”