KENNEWICK — Gov. Jay Inslee has approved Washington state’s largest wind farm to be built along 24 miles of the Horse Heaven Hills just south of the Tri-Cities, the Washington state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council announced Friday afternoon.
The approval for the project includes eased turbine restrictions for endangered ferruginous hawks and traditional cultural properties compared to those initially recommended by the council.
Inslee’s only regret is that it took years for the final approval of the project, he indicated, and told the council to expect him to discuss the matter with it.
The governor sent a letter with his decision on Oct. 18 to the council, and the council gave notice of the decision Friday.
The notice starts a 30 day clock for filing any petitions for judicial review.
Inslee said in the letter that the council had carefully considered the impacts of the project on habitat, wildlife, tribal cultural resources, public safety and visual aesthetics.
The project has been controversial with many in the Tri-Cities and of concern to Yakama Nation. The issues that both raised were thoroughly and adequately responded to by the council, Inslee said.
However, the process to get to approval of the project took too long, he said.
“We will not meet our state’s urgent clean energy needs if the path to a final recommendation from the council spans multiple years and contains conditional micrositing process requirements that further prolong final siting approval for a significant portion of the primary project components,” he said in the letter approving the project.
“I strongly encourage the council to identify opportunities to increase its efficiency and provide for more timely decision making,” he wrote. “You can expect my office to engage with you on this critical issue before the end of my administration.”
Inslee rejected tighter restrictions
EFSEC spent three years studying the proposed project and hearing public comment before it recommended in April that the governor approve the Horse Heaven Clean Energy Center Project. But the approval would come with the elimination of about half of the turbines proposed by Scout Clean Energy, unless the Canadian-owned developer could find space for some of those elsewhere within the project boundaries.
But Inslee sent that recommendation back to the council in May, asking for a less restrictive proposal.
“I strongly encourage the council to return to me their approval of this project application that appropriately prioritizes the state’s pressing clean energy needs,” Inslee told the council in May.
Mitigation measures should be more narrowly tailored to specific impacts, he said.
The council, made of mostly of Washington state employees, complied, and on Sept. 13 again recommended approval of the project but with wind turbines allowed on more of the energy project land than it earlier recommended.
“… neither the economic viability of the proposal, nor market demand for the power that would be produced are within the scope of ESFEC’s review,” the council said in a summary of changes sent to Inslee. “Instead, the council balances general statutory directive to provide for abundant clean energy at a reasonable cost with the impact to the environment and the broad interest of the public.”
The council gave deference to Inslee’s directive to place more weight on the “abundant energy side of the scale,” the summary said.
Inslee has approved the wind farm proposal with those more limited restrictions that would reduce the turbines not by half, but about 23%, if space cannot not be found elsewhere for them on the project.
While unions have supported the project as an important source of construction jobs close to home for their workers in the Tri-Cities area, opposition has come from Tri-Cities residents who object to what they call the “industrialization” of the southern skyline in a community that prides itself on the colorful sunsets of its desert vistas.
It also would impact traditional cultural properties and would be built in part of Washington state’s core nesting territory for endangered ferruginous hawks.
Scout Clean Energy has objected to restrictions, including the reduced restrictions in the recommendation approved Oct. 18 by Inslee, saying they would delay the final design work for the project and could interfere with obtaining financing for the project.
Scout Clean Energy has proposed the Horse Heaven Clean Energy Center have either up to 222 turbines about 500 feet tall or 147 turbines about 670 feet tall, plus solar arrays and battery storage.
The recommendation approved by Inslee could impact 50 of the 222 shorter turbines or 34 of the 147 taller turbines, depending on which plan Scout Clean Energy chooses to pursue, according to EFSEC estimates.
Inslee wants fast committee work
Under the relaxed mitigation measures, the area in which turbines could not be allowed was reduced from a two-mile zone to a 0.6 mile zone around nests that at one time had been used by endangered ferruginous hawks.
However, turbines may only be sited within the 0.6 to 2 mile radius of nests if Scout Clean Energy can demonstrate that the nesting site is no longer viable or foraging habitat there is no longer viable.
If they are allowed some mitigation might be required, such as establishing habitat elsewhere and not operating the turbine at certain times.
A technical advisory committee would make that determination on whether turbines would be allowed within the 0.6 to 2 mile radius, which Scout Clean Energy finds problematic.
Deferring the determinations until after state approval of the project will prevent the project design from being completed, “incapacitating and further delaying construction,” Scout Clean Energy said in a document.
Not only does the process threaten the viability of the project, but also sends a message “that Washington isn’t serious about permitting and building projects at the scale needed to achieve its climate goals,” Scout Clean Energy said in a statement after EFSEC voted on the revised proposal.
Inslee recommended in his Oct. 18 letter to the council that the technical advisory committee be convened within two weeks of the letter and that the committee complete its work within 120 days.
“… it is my expectation that the council and other relevant state agencies will strive to follow these timelines and will work expeditiously with the certificate holder (Scout Clean Energy) to develop all plans and secure all necessary approvals to begin construction as soon as possible,” Inslee said in the letter.
Horse Heaven cultural, wildfire restrictions
Other mitigation measures include:
- Turbines would be prohibited within one mile of Webber Canyon, southeast of Benton City, because of its importance to the Yakama Nation.
The Yakamas told EFSEC that there were multiple traditional cultural properties within the project boundary that could be permanently impacted.
The council chose the area around the canyon to prohibit turbines after Inslee asked the council to focus on the Yakama’s highest priority traditional cultural resources as it considered a recommendation that would not reduce the generation capacity of the project.
- Turbines would be prohibited within a quarter mile of land burned by wildfires since 2000.
That would allow smaller aircraft used to fight fires, but not DC-10s.
In EFSEC’s initial recommendation visual impacts had been considered, but the final recommendation approved by Inslee did not consider the view of the Horse Heaven hills from the Tri-Cities to Benton City.
The summary to the governor said that the turbine limitations for ferruginous hawks, tribal cultural resources and public fire safety would reduce the visual impact for the Tri-Cities.
