[All-Gorge] ☀️ Carriger Solar Delays and CRT Updates - EFSEC March 2026

Governor Ferguson approved the massive Carriger Solar project in December, but a major judicial review petition from the Yakama Nation has brought development to a grinding halt. Today, we break down the legal and cultural friction at play, and explain why this Klickitat County lawsuit matters for the entire Gorge. Plus, we touch on updates from the Cascade Renewable Transmission project, and look at a new state mapping tool that brings a huge win for public transparency.

In This Episode:

• EFSEC's new "eProgrammatic" GIS mapping tool goes live for public use.
• Substitute House Bill 2496 passes the legislature, paving the way for better government-to-government tribal consultation.
• Updates on the Cascade Renewable Transmission (CRT) project's environmental review process.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Read the full text of EFSEC Resolution No. 360 detailing the Yakama Nation's arguments: EFSEC Resolution 360
• Track the Carriger Solar project and find raw meeting materials at the EFSEC Project Page
• Access the new eProgrammatic Transmission Tool at efsec.wa.gov (Search "Programmatic")

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey neighbor, welcome back to the podcast today with an all-gorge update. Today, we're digging into the latest updates from the state's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, better known as FSEC, from their March 18th meeting. We have a lot of ground to cover regarding energy infrastructure in the gorge today, but we're going to start with the elephant in the room. If you live in Clickitac County, you've probably heard about Carriger Solar. It's a proposed 160 megawatt solar facility paired with a battery storage system. The state considers Carriger a crucial piece of our clean energy transition. Back in December of 2025, Governor Ferguson officially approved the project. The developers are racing the clock to start construction by the summer to secure vital federal tax incentives. But right now, the project is completely stalled. At the end of December, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation filed a formal petition for judicial review to halt the development. FSEC sighting specialist Joanne Snarski confirmed at the meeting that this litigation has slowed down the developers' ability to submit their required pre-construction plans. State attorneys are now preparing to send the massive agency record over to the Thurston County Superior Court. So what's the core conflict here? The Yakima Nation argues that the state bypassed crucial environmental requirements under the State Environmental Policy Act, or CEPA, specifically regarding water supply. They also argue that the state failed to adequately protect traditional cultural properties, or TCPs. In the gorge, empty land, quote unquote, is rarely actually empty. It is layered with historical, cultural significance, including vital food and medicine harvesting grounds. This lawsuit is a real-time lesson in why early meaningful consultation matters. When tribal concerns are not resolved during initial planning phases, they often lead to complex and expensive litigation on the back end. And that brings us to a piece of good news from the state legislature. FSEC's legislative manager, Lisa McLean, announced that Substitute House Bill 2496 just passed the legislature and is openly awaiting the governor's signature. This bill is a game changer. It creates an exemption to the Open Public Meetings Act, allowing the full FSEC Council to sit down directly with tribal councils to discuss cultural resources early in the process without needing to wait until particular public meeting dates. Tuning now to another major project on our radar, the Cascade Renewable Transmission Project, or CRT. If you've been following our coverage at the Scamania Dispatch, you know that this is the proposed underwater power line in the Columbia River. FSEC staff are currently reviewing the CRT's application to kick off with formal SEPA environmental review. How's that for a bunch of acronyms all in a row? Hopefully you got that alphabet soup all together. They are also drafting an interlocal agreement with Scamania County and the Columbia River Gorge Commission to figure out exactly how national scenic area rules apply to this massive project. Finally, if you love open data, and we sure do, you are going to want to hear this. So FSEC CEPA specialist Sean Green announced that the state's new e-programmatic tool is officially live. So what does it do and why is it important? Historically, figuring out how a transmission line might impact your community might digging up through hundreds of pages of dense technical PDFs. That might be fine for some of us, but certainly not an entertaining afternoon for most people listening to this podcast. So not anymore. This new digital interface features an interactive GIS route analysis tool. You could literally draw a hypothetical transmission corridor onto a digital map, and the tool will automatically show you all the sensitive resources and intersects from prime farmland to military airspace. It's a massive win, in my opinion, for civic participation. It makes it easier to both hold agencies accountable with good data, but also helps us, the public, share in the challenges of siting energy projects. These challenges are especially great for renewables that often require larger areas with much more contiguous plots that each were going to have their own regulatory burdens and processes. We're going to need that kind of bird's eye view to be able to figure out where we can generate and then transmit that power to where it will be used in a financially and environmentally sustainable way. To try the mapping tool for yourself or read the deep dive on the Carrier Solar Lawsuit, check out the links in today's show notes. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, the home of the Schmania Dispatch and the Clicka Taddler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time.