Published 8:15 am Thursday, April 18, 2024
The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council voted 5-2 Wednesday to recommend Washington Gov. Jay Inslee approve the Horse Heaven wind and solar project, but with restrictions on where turbines can be built.
The recommendation to Inslee allows up to 222 turbines stretching along 25 miles of rolling hills near the Tri-Cities in southeast Washington. Solar panels would cover more than 5,000 acres, mostly farmland.
It’s unknown how many turbines Scout Clean Energy could actually put up. The recommendation bars turbines within 2 miles of historic Ferruginous hawk nests, including ones that haven’t recently been occupied.
EFSEC environmental planner Sean Greene said the staff couldn’t include an exact number of turbines in the recommendation to the governor.
“That request is impractical at this time, as the applicant is anticipated to go through substantial project redesign,” he said.
Scout, based in Boulder, Colo., and owned by Brookfield Renewable Partners of Toronto, Canada, criticized the 2-mile buffer in written comments last week to EFSEC. A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Wednesday’s vote.
In a letter signed by Scout President and CEO Michael Rucker, the company said the buffers and other restrictions would cut the project’s generating capacity by more than half.
“As a result, it is impossible to discern what ‘project’ the council is approving, or whether it is even commercially or technically viable,” according to Rucker.
The Yakama Nation opposes the project, saying it would destroy sacred sites. A citizens group, Tri-City CARES, opposes turbines, each one potentially taller than the Space Needle, dominating the landscape.
The 2-mile buffer around hawk nests also addresses those concerns, EFSEC Chairwoman Kathleen Drew said.
“EFSEC is balancing the need for renewable, clean energy with potential impacts on tribal cultural resources and surrounding communities,” she said.
Drew and representatives for the Department of Ecology, Department of Commerce, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Utilities and Transportation Commission voted to recommend the project to Inslee.
Department of Natural Resources deputy chief operating officer Lenny Young and Benton County representative Ed Brost voted against recommending the project to Inslee.
Young said in a statement the restrictions are insufficient to protect the Yakama Nation’s cultural properties. The final environmental impact statement found the harm would be significant.
Efforts to obtain comment Wednesday from the Yakama Nation were unsuccessful.
The drumbeat to breach Lower Snake River dams called into question the need for Scout’s renewable energy project, Brost said.
Inslee has 60 days to act on EFSEC’s recommendation. He could ask the the council to reconsider the restrictions on placing turbines.
Scout said EFSEC’s conditions call into question Washington’s commitment to fighting climate change. Inslee has made climate change the central cause of his administration.
Tri-City CARES attorney Richard Aramburu said he expects the Scout to press Inslee to second-guess EFSEC.
The council’s restrictions are a “useful beginning,” Aramburu said. “We think there is more to be done for visual impacts.”
