This bill amends existing law (RCW 80.50.100) to add new procedural requirements for energy facility siting recommendations, with specific provisions for wind and solar projects. It requires the energy facility site evaluation council to submit its recommendation and a draft site certification agreement to the governor within 12 months of a complete application (or within 180 days for certain applications filed before December 31, 2025, if qualifying for expedited processing). The council must include proposed conditions protecting state, local, community interests and overburdened communities and must send wind or solar siting recommendations at the same time to the governor, the appropriate county legislative authority, and each affected federally recognized tribe. The bill creates a new procedural approval path: as a condition of gubernatorial approval, each affected federally recognized tribe and the appropriate county legislative authority must adopt a resolution approving the recommendation. Those bodies have 90 days to approve, reject, or request council reconsideration; if reconsideration is requested, the council must reconsider and resubmit for approval. The governor may not approve or execute a certification agreement unless the council has received approval resolutions from the county and each affected tribe, and the governor has specified 60-day windows to act after receipt of the council’s report or of all approval resolutions. The certification agreement becomes binding when executed by the governor and applicant; a gubernatorial rejection is final for that application but does not bar a later application. The act declares an emergency and takes effect immediately. The changes are procedural and approval-condition changes to existing law; they do not create new crimes or change penalties. Some definitions and related provisions are not included in the provided text, including definitions for "appropriate county legislative authority" and "affected federally recognized tribe," the qualifying criteria referenced in RCW 80.80.040, the content of RCW 80.50.110 about preemption or supersession, and full procedural standards for reopening adjudicative proceedings.

If enacted, wind and solar developers seeking state site certification will face a new process that requires the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council to move faster and to get formal, written approval from each affected federally recognized tribe and the county legislative authority before the governor can sign a certification. That effectively gives those tribes and counties the power to block or extract conditions from a project, increases the likelihood of negotiation over protections for local and overburdened communities, and raises the risk that a developer’s application will be delayed, modified, or rejected even after the council recommends approval. The council, governor, tribes, counties, and applicants will have tighter deadlines to meet (12 months generally, 180 days for certain earlier applications) and new steps to follow, so applicants should expect added administrative time and potential costs to secure tribal and county resolutions. Important details that would affect how this works in practice are missing from the provided text, including exact definitions of “appropriate county legislative authority” and “affected federally recognized tribe,” which projects qualify for the expedited 180‑day process, and the standards and procedures for reconsideration.