This bill adds new sections to chapters 80.50 and 43.21C RCW and makes administrative and procedural changes to how certain energy facility applications are reviewed. For applications for electrical transmission facilities under specified subsections of RCW 80.50.060, the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is expanded to include the chair plus two additional governor‑appointed members with specified experience, at least one of whom must be a Washington‑admitted lawyer. Those two members serve staggered six‑year terms, may be removed for cause by a three‑judge tribunal, are exempt from state civil service, have salaries set by an unspecified director, and are barred for one year after leaving the council from representing clients before the council. A majority of these members constitutes a quorum for official business, and the council may act with a vacancy. The bill changes permitting and adjudicative procedures. Applications for the specified transmission facilities generally must be reviewed in an adjudicative hearing under RCW 80.50.090(4) and chapter 34.05 RCW (rather than the RCW 80.50.090(2) hearing), unless eligible for expedited processing. The council’s recommendations to the governor for these applications must be based on five listed decisional criteria: adequate public facilities, not materially detrimental to nearby uses or property, compliance with applicable design and development standards required by the chapter, compliance with applicable state and federal statutes, and provision of practicable mitigation for adverse environmental impacts. Council staff and the applicant must determine applicable design and development standards within 90 days of a complete application; compliance with those standards is deemed to mitigate or avoid adverse impacts to a nonsignificant level under chapter 43.21C RCW. Materials deemed a complete application are treated as full documentation for compliance with RCW 43.21C.460. The bill also establishes limited rules for repowering wind generation facilities, authorizes certain pre‑construction site preparation at the applicant’s risk, provides criteria for minor repowering amendments, and makes repowering amendments filed before July 4, 2026 eligible for a categorical exemption in defined cases. The bill also expands and clarifies expedited processing. The council must grant expedited processing for solar, onshore wind, electricity storage, and transmission facilities if two findings are met: the environmental impact is not significant or will be mitigated to a nonsignificant level under RCW 43.21C.031, and the applicant completed a preapplication tribal consultation process with federally recognized tribes that may be affected. For other facilities, expedited processing may be granted if impacts are nonsignificant and the project is consistent with local land use plans or zoning. Qualifying applicants must state the permitting pathway sought; if expedited processing is granted the council is not required to commission an independent environmental study or hold an adjudicative proceeding under chapter 34.05 RCW. The bill sets timeframes: threshold determinations under chapter 43.21C must be made within 90 days of application completeness, the council must provide a list of potentially affected tribes within 14 days on request, and applicants must document preapplication tribal notification, opportunities to comment and meet, any comments received, and responses. Some important details are missing from the extracted text. The amendment to RCW 80.50.075 is incomplete in these facts, the bill references definitions such as “existing certification” and “repowering” without providing their text here, and the identity of the “director” who sets salaries is not specified in the extracted material.

If enacted, the law restructures reviews for large transmission and certain renewable projects so qualified applicants can get faster, less formal permitting: the council must decide design standards within 90 days, treat compliance with those standards as resolving SEPA concerns, and must grant expedited processing for solar, onshore wind, storage, and transmission projects that can show nonsignificant environmental impacts and documented preapplication tribal consultation; expedited projects can avoid independent environmental studies and full adjudicative hearings, and wind repowering applicants may start some site work before approval at their own risk. That is likely to shorten review timelines and lower some study and hearing costs for developers who meet the criteria, while concentrating legal and advisory responsibility in a slightly enlarged, governor‑appointed council that includes a required practicing lawyer and carries new appointment, salary, removal, and post‑service restrictions. The groups most affected are developers of transmission lines, solar, wind repowering, and storage projects (they gain faster pathways but must do timely tribal outreach and accept risk if starting work preapproval), the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council and state officials (they gain new members, duties, and deadlines and likely modest added salary and administrative costs), and federally recognized tribes (they get a required preapplication engagement role). Important details are missing from the extracted text — for example precise definitions, the identity of “the director” who sets salaries, the complete amendment language for RCW 80.50.075, and how application completeness is formally determined — so actual effects will depend on those implementation details.