IT IS OFFICIAL- Tenaska is going to bypass Cities and Counties to get their BESS permits by switching to the State Level permitting option!
I heard from Tukwila's City Council that Tenaska withdrew their preliminary discussions about getting a conditional use permit through Tukwila's permitting office for their Tukwila BESS, and Tenaska has switched permitting venues to the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC)!!!!
This will be a tough fight, as the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council's job is to approve energy faciilties! So they will be looking for ways to approve all BESS.
We need to flood the EFSEC with emails about BESS dangers and stopping Tenaska from getting approval to site their BESS next to Mattson Middle School, high population neighborhoods, and rural homes in our residential ONLY zoned area!
HOW TO SUMBIT A COMMENT TO EFSEC AT ANY TIME:
You may send comments to EFSEC at any time by email at comments@efsec.wa.gov or by mail to this address:
Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council
621 Woodland Square Loop SE
Lacey, WA 98503
We recommend only sending your comment to EFSEC by email if there are no open comment campaigns or if your comment is not related to the open comment campaign.
As there is no open campaign yet, please send emails stating your opposition and sharing facts/details about the dangers and impacts of a BESS (fires, explosions, shrapnel, deadly toxins, noise, environmental, home value, etc) and point out Tenaska's proposed BESS next to Mattson Middle School just outside of Covington City limits and in unincorporated King County and how it will have massive negative impacts if it gets approval...
When there is an open campaign on the EFSEC website, here's how to send a comment to EFSEC during an open comment period:
When there is an active comment period you may submit your comment by going to comments.efsec.wa.gov and selecting the campaign from the "open campaigns" section. If there are no open comment periods you will only see "Closed comment campaigns".
You can subscribe for updates on general info from the EFSEC and updates on all projects here:
https://www.efsec.wa.gov/about-efsec/mailing-lists
You can request all records from the EFSEC through the following link:
https://www.efsec.wa.gov/about-efsec/public-records-request
You can request, "All files for all Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects submitted by Tenaska and its Subsidiaries (Goldfinch Energy Storage, LLC, KINGFISHER ENERGY STORAGE, and or their representatives, Tommy Nelson, Brian Wright, and their lobbyist Austin Hicks from Strategies 360). I would like all emails, all attachments, all docs, all studies, and every other record associated with BESS siting from any stage of the process"
------------------
And, please don't forget our other battle with King County permitting and their "Determination of Non-Significance" for all BESS (which would allow BESS developers to bypass all environmental reviews), if you haven't already sent emails to Robin at King County Permitting rproebsting@kingcounty.gov (due before OCT 18th at 4pm) and asking for them to assign BESS a label of "Significant Impact" which would require SEPA reviews and remove the Non-Significant determination of impacts AND ask for an extension of the public comment period and a public hearing in Covington. Under state law, if 50 or more people ask for a public hearing the lead agency is required to hold one.