Final offer for controversial WA wind farm heads to Gov. Jay Inslee

Nobody’s really getting what they want with the massive wind farm proposed for South Central Washington.

And now Gov. Jay Inslee can take it or leave it.

First proposed in 2021 by Colorado developer Scout Clean Energy, the $1.7 billion Horse Heaven Hills wind farm began as the largest project of its kind ever proposed in Washington. It encompassed up to 222 wind turbines across 24 miles of hillsides near the Tri-Cities, plus three solar arrays covering up to 5,447 acres.

Since then, the project has been stuck in a sort of governmental limbo with Washington’s seven-person Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, a permitting clearinghouse for these types of large projects.

Inslee had requested that the council reexamine the project and allow for as many wind turbines as possible, but the group responded on Friday with relatively minor changes.

The governor must now either accept the council’s proposal or reject it, which would effectively kill the project at a time when Washington is scrambling to find new renewable sources of electricity.

Even if Inslee goes along with the council’s latest recommendation, the developer now says the project will stall out for an indeterminate amount of time, further complicating the matter.

At the heart of the issue remains the little-known and endangered ferruginous hawk.

In April, the council recommended slashing the project in half by creating a 2-mile buffer around each nest. No turbines could be built within those zones. 

Ferruginous hawk nests pepper the area. Most — maybe all — of them are empty, but the hawks have been known to return to the sites even after years away. 

Inslee rejected the council’s recommendation in May, asking the group to reconsider the issue and find a way to allow for more turbines to be built. 

The council worked on the project for three more months but didn’t budge much. On Friday the council held fast to its 2-mile buffer but also created an option to rely on a different group — called the Pre-operational Technical Advisory Group — to examine nests on a case-by-case basis and make a recommendation to the council on whether to reduce that setback to 1 kilometer.

Theoretically, this could allow Scout to build all but perhaps 30 of the turbines it originally proposed, said Dave Kobus, the developer’s senior project manager. But it’s also asking the company to take a leap of faith, moving forward on half its original project with only the possibility of expanding after the fact. 

That’s a nonstarter, Kobus said. Instead, he said the company should only have to take precautions around active nesting sites.

Even if Inslee accepts the council’s new recommendation, that doesn’t automatically mean the developer would build.

“We will be paused and considering our options,” Kobus said.

The Yakama Nation has fought against the project since the beginning, arguing it would damage the cultural and historical significance of the Horse Heaven Hills. In an August letter to the council, tribal Chairman Gerald Lewis criticized Inslee’s “callous dismissal” of the consequences the wind farm would create and the council’s revised plan, which would devastate the region’s natural and cultural resources. 

“This sacred landscape will be forever changed,” Lewis wrote. 

Nobody can predict whether ferruginous hawks will return to their empty nests, said Trina Bayard, interim executive director of the National Audubon Society’s Washington office. But if turbines are built too close to the empty nests, the development could remove the option entirely.

Not only does the council’s decision determine the level of protections that Washington will afford the ferruginous hawk, but it also sets a precedent for other species threatened by future projects, Bayard said.

The back-and-forth on the Horse Heaven Hills project highlights the challenges posed by major renewable energy projects in Washington. All the while the demand for electricity increases and new generation has not kept pace, sparking concern for the years ahead. 

Representatives for Inslee declined to comment on the project. Once the council’s new recommendation hits his desk, he will have 60 days to make a decision.