This bill creates new statutory sections and amends existing law to promote certain distributed energy uses and to change environmental review and property-tax classification procedures. It adds new “distributed energy priorities” to chapter 43.21F RCW, requires a state department to help identify, coordinate, and implement opportunities for state government to facilitate those priorities, and defines categories of priority projects (certain siting conditions for solar with storage and transmission, small-scale wind with storage and transmission, energy storage in specified locations, distribution/behind‑the‑meter programs, and thermal demand‑reduction or thermal storage programs). It defines “agrivoltaic facility” and sets operational, construction, and agricultural-use requirements and limits on degradation of agricultural or ecological productivity. The bill amends SEPA procedures in RCW 43.21C.530 for “clean energy projects,” creating procedural changes: lead agencies must give a written pre‑threshold notification to applicants if a determination of probable significant impact is anticipated; applicants may withdraw and revise applications before the threshold determination; the responsible official generally has up to 30 days to make a threshold determination after resubmission unless the resubmission materially changes impacts; lead agencies preparing an EIS for clean energy projects must complete a final EIS within 24 months of a determination of probable significant adverse impact unless the applicant agrees to a longer period; and lead agencies must adopt and post a coordinated review and public participation schedule on the SEPA register. The bill makes failures to meet certain schedule requirements nonappealable and not a basis to invalidate agency review under the chapter. The Department of Ecology is directed to evaluate and, by rule, may expedite or exempt certain distributed energy priority projects and small solar-support structures (under 1,000 square feet footprint) from compliance with the chapter or identify standardized mitigation. In adopting rules the department must consider existing nonproject EISs, applicable federal guidance and NEPA practice, seek input from tribes, agencies, local governments, stakeholders and the public, and strive to adopt rules by January 1, 2028. The act also amends property classification law (RCW 84.34.020 and 84.34.070) to include agrivoltaic facilities in the definitions and eligibility for farm and agricultural land classification, restates income and acreage thresholds for farm classifications, requires classified land to remain classified at least ten years with specified withdrawal and assessor notice procedures, provides that adding an agrivoltaic facility does not constitute reclassification or trigger additional tax under RCW 84.34.108, and includes a severability clause. Important context is missing or incomplete in the extracted text: the specific “department” named to implement distributed energy priorities is not identified here, some statutory text and definitions are cut off, and other parts of the bill beyond the provided sections are not included.

If enacted, the bill makes it easier and clearer to site small-scale solar, wind, energy storage, and thermal-demand reduction projects on a wide range of disturbed or built areas (transmission and road easements, parking lots, closed landfills, reclaimed mine lands, remediated contaminated sites, and existing structures) and creates formal priorities and operational rules for agrivoltaic systems that must continue agricultural production and avoid lasting harm to soils or ecology. For clean energy project reviews it requires earlier written notice if a project is likely to need an environmental impact statement, lets applicants withdraw and revise before a threshold decision, limits resubmitted threshold decisions to 30 days, directs final EISs to be completed within 24 months absent an agreed extension, and forces a coordinated review schedule that must be published and updated; Department of Ecology is also tasked to pursue categorical exemptions or standardized mitigation for low‑impact distributed energy projects and small solar structures, aiming to adopt rules by January 1, 2028. The most affected parties are clean energy developers and project applicants (likely lower review time and cost and less risk of indefinite delay), lead agencies and Ecology (new scheduling, consultation, and rulemaking responsibilities that increase administrative workload), agricultural landowners (they can add agrivoltaic facilities without losing farm/ agricultural classification or triggering additional tax under the listed provisions, but must meet the act’s operational limits and cannot sell associated water rights), and county assessors and legislative bodies (new notice and classification handling duties). The text supplied leaves unclear which specific state department is charged with some coordination duties and does not include full fiscal or implementation details, so exact costs to agencies and any broader tax impacts are not shown.