Washington Governor Jay Inslee has approved a revised plan for a massive proposed wind farm after rejecting a much slimmed-down version earlier this year.
Inslee urged permitting authorities to work quickly to allow construction of as many Horse Heaven Wind Farm turbines as possible, The Seattle Times reported. Washington state won’t be able to meet its “urgent clean energy needs” if officials take years to approve the turbines, he said.
The original $1.7 billion project included up to 222 wind turbines spread over 24 miles (38.6 kilometers) of hillsides in the Tri-Cities area of ​​eastern Washington and three solar panels covering an area of ​​up to 14 square miles (22 square kilometers).
But then the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council of Washington, a clearinghouse for permits required for major projects, recommended cutting the proposal in half because nests of the endangered ferruginous hawk had been found in the area. It wanted a 2 mile buffer around each nest.
Most of the nests were empty, but the hawks may return to them years later.
In May, Inslee rejected the council’s recommendation to scale back the project, prompting the panel to propose a compromise that would examine turbines and nests on a case-by-case basis. Under this plan, which Inslee formally approved on October 18, a technical advisory group would recommend whether individual nest setbacks should be reduced to 1 kilometer (0.6 mi).
This could allow the developer, Boulder, Colorado-based Scout Clean Energy, to build all but 30 of the turbines originally proposed.
Inslee, a Democrat, has tried to make climate initiatives key to his legacy. He will not stand for re-election after three terms.
The wind farm project has drawn local opponents against the state’s ever-growing renewable energy needs since it was first proposed in 2021. In a letter to the site review board, Inslee noted that Washington’s energy needs could nearly double by 2050.
