With the latest passage of SB 6355, Washington has taken an necessary step ahead in constructing the trendy electrical grid the state must assist a clear power future. The laws establishes a devoted state transmission authority to plan, coordinate, and finance new transmission infrastructure.
For greater than a decade, clear power initiatives have skilled challenges in connecting to the grid because of capability constraints and a scarcity of coordinated planning. This new entity will serve to deal with these limitations to wash power deployment.
As detailed in Audubon’s 2023 report, Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, local weather change stays the best long-term menace to birds, driving habitat loss, interrupting migration patterns, and rising the chance of widespread inhabitants declines. Quickly scaling up clear power is among the only methods to mitigate the consequences of local weather change.
Transmission improvement can pose dangers to birds and the habitats they depend upon, however there are well-established, science-based options that serve to keep away from, reduce, and mitigate these dangers and potential impacts. Properly-informed siting and design, maximizing the capability of the prevailing grid by using grid-enhancing applied sciences, using current corridors, enhancing line visibility, and managing habitat alongside transmission routes can considerably cut back impacts. In lots of circumstances, by responsibly siting traces, we will keep away from essentially the most delicate areas altogether, guaranteeing that infrastructure build-out helps each clear power and conservation objectives. With a devoted transmission authority in place, Washington is best positioned to include environmental concerns early within the course of, prioritize accountable and considerate transmission siting, and guarantee significant collaboration with communities, conservation organizations, and different stakeholders.
The passage of this necessary laws was the most recent milestone in our longstanding efforts to drive responsibly sited clear power. Our success in supporting this invoice was made potential by the engagement of Audubon’s community in Washington. Audubon advocates throughout the state took motion at crucial factors all through the method, sending greater than 1,000 focused messages to legislators. This coordinated advocacy elevated the significance of responsibly-sited infrastructure that may speed up the clear power transition whereas emphasizing the safety of birds and the locations they name dwelling.
