We all have a role to play in building a sustainable future where people and nature can thrive. In Washington State, part of that future means rapidly transitioning to a clean, affordable, reliable, and sufficiently expansive energy grid. But with a growing understanding of how much new infrastructure is needed under the best scenarios, we also need proper planning and policies to better protect prime natural and working lands and assure prosperous futures for energy-hosting communities.
Speak up for nature this session
Achieving this is going to require an unprecedented build-out of clean energy and transmission infrastructure in the coming years, at a much faster rate than Washington is currently accomplishing. Analysis by TNC and partners has found that we can accomplish this while protecting the lands we all treasure – whether agricultural working lands, protected habitat, or tribal lands. It doesn’t have to be either develop clean energy development or maintain our working lands and wildlife habitat.
It doesn’t have to be an either develop clean energy or maintain our working lands and wildlife habitat.
Accomplishing this will take proactive, collaborative planning and policies—the State Legislature has the opportunity this year to take critical steps in planning for this transition while ensuring that no community gets left behind in the process.
How clean energy projects are sited currently
Aerial view of the Yakima Valley, where an increasing number of clean energy siting proposals are being submitted.
Already, the current project review and approval structures are less effective and efficient than they could be for everyone involved—Tribes, project developers and utilities, conservation advocates, local governments and state agencies, local communities, and more. Our ad hoc approach is unplanned and inefficient, creating uncertainty and cost for needed projects and, importantly, doesn’t help guide projects to lower conflict locations. Current project analysis requires Tribes and communities to engage project-by-project, disconnected from other projects in the works or the larger needs for our energy grid. And the current processes are not equipped to support the scale of energy development that’s needed, at the speed needed, when we really have no time to lose.
Identifying exactly where substantial new clean energy projects should be located has been one focus of discussions. Through meaningful stakeholder engagement, and landscape-level analyses of our energy needs that also take into consideration environmental, economic, and community needs, we can successfully identify the areas with the most agreement. By doing so, we can accelerate the approval of projects in those locations, for example, or develop predictable pathways to offset impacts.
What potential do Washington lands hold
In service of better understanding Washington’s intersecting land use and energy needs, and in partnership with industry-leading energy researchers, TNC produced the Power of Place-West. This in-depth study evaluates energy, economic, environmental, and geospatial data points to produce the most comprehensive clean energy analysis to date for the 11 Western grid states.
The findings of this study are encouraging—we can achieve our clean energy goals, and we can greatly reduce the impact to wildlife, natural and working lands—if we act collectively, and incorporate considerations of frontline communities from the beginning of the planning process. Washington lawmakers and agencies must also work closely with Tribal nations to ensure Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights are upheld by any policies and processes.
Making progress this legislative session
In line with this work, one of our top legislative priorities in Olympia this year is supporting HB 1216. This bill would take a number of important steps:
Establishes an interagency clean energy siting council to improve siting and permitting coordination,
Creates a designation for clean energy projects of statewide significance, with access to agency regulatory assistance and a coordinated permitting process,
Calls for the expeditious completion of three separate environmental assessments for certain technology types (solar, wind, and green hydrogen) which will identify areas where significant adverse impacts cannot be avoided, provides a pathway for more efficient project-level permitting, and asks the new siting council to recommend identifying zones after these assessments are complete,
Directs the Washington State University Energy Program to complete an analysis of pumped storage project information.
As we consider this bill and other policy solutions, we must keep nature and people at the heart of our decision-making. We urge the legislature to pass the strongest possible version of this bill during this session. This bill, along with expanding transmission infrastructure, pump storage, battery storage, and waste management around clean energy materials will move us much closer to realizing a healthy, vibrant, and sustainable future.
Banner photo: Wind turbines in Steptoe Butte near Palouse, WA.
© Jane Pittenger/Cape Mountain Photos
