Lawsuits challenging the decision by former Gov. Jay Inslee and a state agency to site a wind energy facility in the Horse Heaven Hills are headed to the Washington Supreme Court.

Judge Chris Lanese of Thurston County Superior Court ruled in mid-June to move the legal challenges by Benton County, the Yakama Nation and local nonprofit Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S. to the higher court, according to court records.

It will be up to the Supreme Court to determine whether to accept the lawsuits for review. No information on when that decision would be made was immediately available. The Washington Supreme Court is asked to review up to 1,000 cases each year, many of them from the state’s Court of Appeals, and its justices hear about 135 cases per year. The court’s next session starts in September.

The Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business did not receive responses for requests for comment on the legal challenges from the state Energy Facility Siting Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, nor from the project’s developer, Boulder, Colorado-based Scout Energy.

Dave Sharp, Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S. vice president, told the Journal the group welcomed the judge’s decision. He also tempered expectations, noting that some form of the project may still end up being built even if the Supreme Court accepts the case and rules for the plaintiffs.

“It does delay the outcome, and time, we believe, is in our favor,” he said.

Even a victory at the state Supreme Court would be limited, Sharp said. The court could require the defendants to redo part of the approval process or scale the project back to make it less objectionable.

But that’s where having time on their side counts, Sharp said.

“We believe that what is happening nationally with regards to the subsidies for renewable energy will have more to do with whether the project proceeds than anything else,” he said. “We have always taken the position that the project is a non-viable project supported only by federal and state subsidies that will go to the developers and their parent, Brookfield Energy Partners.”

The Trump administration has slashed millions of dollars in funding from federal green energy initiatives in recent months, which includes subsidies and grants for green energy projects and infrastructure. 

Scout plans to build a 1,150-megawatt wind farm in the Horse Heaven Hills between Prosser and Benton City. Company officials have said the project will generate an expected 1,000 jobs during construction and contribute more than $250 million in local tax revenues throughout its 35-year operating lifespan.

EFSEC approved the project in November 2024, after Inslee rejected its initial approval which required the project to be scaled back.

That approval triggered the Yakama Nation, Benton County commissioners and Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S. to challenge that siting decision with a laundry list of how Inslee, state agencies and the courts allegedly violated everything from state environmental protection laws to local land use planning regulations and limited access to proceedings related to the decision.

The decision also prompted state Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, to introduce legislation during the 2025 legislative session that would remove the governor’s office from future energy facility siting decisions. That bill did not move forward.