“I hope that after this panel, you're all comfortable saying ‘build sh**,’ knowing what we mean behind it. It’s a genuine intent,” joked Isaac Kastama, the government relations director for the nonprofit Clean and Prosperous Washington.
Kastama was wrapping up a panel discussion about a new report with a cheeky acronym: the Build Sustainable High Impact Infrastructure Together, or "‘Build SHIIT’" Report, at the eighth annual Carbon Policy Forum in Seattle. He was joined by the state directors of commerce and ecology, and the chair of the state council to evaluate energy facility sites.
The humor is meant to call attention to a serious issue. Despite leading the nation in climate policy, Washington has fallen far behind in renewable energy growth.
Recent reporting from ProPublica and OPB showed Washington ranking dead last among U.S. states in renewable energy growth. A major reason for this is an extensive backlog of clean energy projects.
A report jointly published by Clean and Prosperous and the nonpartisan research firm Greenline Insights finds that more than 250 clean energy projects have stalled due to permitting and other delays. It says those projects add up to $149 billion in economic activity and 580,000 jobs.
Their findings include a map showing project specifics. Tiny colored dots represent everything from large-scale solar developments to a green hydrogen biomass refinery, wind farms and pumped storage proposals scattered all over the state.
According to the report, Washington has the right ingredients for success: a pipeline of projects, strong policies and goals, industry, and abundant resources. But the state continues to miss emissions reduction goals and to fall behind others.
Speaking to KNKX after the panel discussion, Kastama said this backlog is not all negative. Rather, it's a strong indication that Washington’s climate policies are “working really well to motivate the interest” of the sector.
“The part that now we're struggling with really exists outside the Climate Commitment Act, and outside our state's 100% clean energy law. That is, how do we manage other processes to get these facilities permitted?” he said.
Kastama said they need a stronger consensus that these projects are necessary and beneficial, especially with tribes and other local governments in rural areas.
More transmission lines are needed as well. One bill Kastama is working on this session seeks to create a new state entity to examine bottlenecks and facilitate new construction of transmission lines.
Officials on the panel agreed that meeting the mandates of state climate policies is challenging.
“When you look at a lot of work that's being done now, this is the first time it's ever been done,” Commerce Director Joe Nguyen said.
Nguyen said these challenges are often extremely complex, but that leaders need to step up.
“That is what leadership looks like, and that is why Washington state is able to build sh**, is because we are not scared of doing hard things,” he said.
Nguyen estimated that in the last four months alone, the state had lost out on "probably 15,000 jobs," potentially because companies that wanted to come to Washington could not get enough energy to bring their project.
“They wanted to be here. Their clients were here. The workforce was here. Everything's great here, but they couldn't get the 10, 20, 50 megawatts that they wanted to be able to build,” he said.
Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller said Gov. Bob Ferguson has given clear direction on these issues.
“We are incredibly motivated to prove that we can get things built in this state. And I think the report highlights that there's huge opportunity,” he said, adding that the state has a long history of maintaining strong environmental protections while growing the economy.
Sixkiller said the state needs to use more of a customer-service approach to permitting. And officials need to demystify what that permitting looks like.
“We need to do more to encourage people to come into a room and work together to deliver a project,” he said.
Clean and Prosperous Washington is organizing a study mission to Texas this spring to learn how that state has far surpassed Washington in getting clean energy projects built.
