Washington Takes a Major Step Toward a Cleaner, More Bird-Friendly Electric Grid

With the latest passage of SB 6355, Washington has taken an essential step ahead in constructing the trendy electrical grid the state must assist a clear vitality future. The laws establishes a devoted state transmission authority to plan, coordinate, and finance new transmission infrastructure.  

For greater than a decade, clear vitality tasks have skilled challenges in connecting to the grid as a consequence of capability constraints and an absence of coordinated planning. This new entity will serve to deal with these limitations to wash vitality deployment. 

As detailed in Audubon’s 2023 report, Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, local weather change stays the best long-term risk to birds, driving habitat loss, interrupting migration patterns, and rising the chance of widespread inhabitants declines. Quickly scaling up clear vitality is among the simplest 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, decrease, and mitigate these dangers and potential impacts. Properly-informed siting and design, maximizing the capability of the present grid by using grid-enhancing applied sciences, using present corridors, bettering line visibility, and managing habitat alongside transmission routes can considerably scale back impacts. In lots of instances, by responsibly siting traces, we are able to keep away from probably the most delicate areas altogether, making certain that infrastructure build-out helps each clear vitality and conservation targets. 

With a devoted transmission authority in place, Washington is healthier 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 essential laws was the most recent milestone in our longstanding efforts to drive responsibly sited clear vitality. Our success in supporting this invoice was made doable by the engagement of Audubon’s community in Washington. Audubon advocates throughout the state took motion at essential 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 vitality transition whereas emphasizing the safety of birds and the locations they name house.