This bill amends chapter 80.50 RCW (Energy Facility Site Evaluation) by adding fusion energy facilities to the types of projects that may obtain site certification and by revising policy statements, definitions, and procedural provisions. It expressly amends RCW 80.50.010, reenacts and amends RCW 80.50.020, and amends RCW 80.50.060 and 80.50.300. The bill updates the chapter’s findings to emphasize clean energy, transparency and inclusion (including attention to overburdened communities), support for in‑state clean energy manufacturing, and reuse of unfinished fission nuclear sites under local control. Substantive legal changes are largely definitional and procedural. The bill expands or clarifies definitions (for example, alternative energy resources; clean energy product manufacturing facility; green and renewable hydrogen; storage facility; associated facilities) and sets construction and capacity thresholds (construction defined as onsite improvements costing more than $250,000; energy plant categories include numeric thresholds such as 350,000 kW for certain thermal plants and other volume/throughput thresholds). Applicants may elect certification under the chapter for additional facility types including fusion energy, certain biofuel and alternative energy facilities, specified transmission facilities, storage facilities, and clean energy product manufacturing facilities. Fusion facilities that receive site certification must also obtain applicable radiation control licenses, registrations, or equivalent authorizations from designated state or federal agencies. Procedural changes require application on council forms with technical studies, notification of county and city legislative authorities, the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, and affected federally recognized tribes, and a duty for the council to consult with tribes and summarize that consultation in its report to the governor. The bill also provides a process for transferring site restoration responsibilities and property for unfinished fission nuclear projects to political subdivisions and directs the Department of Ecology to create trust water rights in certain transferred‑site situations. The text provided does not include the full amended language of RCW 80.50.060 and 80.50.300, the complete continuation of the “preapplication process” definition, or an explicit, standalone statutory definition of “fusion energy,” so some details of the amendments are not available in these extracts. No new crimes or penalty changes are described in the provided facts.

If enacted, the bill would broaden which energy and manufacturing projects can use Washington’s state siting review by explicitly including fusion energy facilities, various clean energy product manufacturers, storage of renewable hydrogen, and related projects. That means developers of those projects will more often face a state site certification process (with required application forms and technical studies), very large transmission projects will automatically be subject to the chapter, and fusion projects will additionally need to secure radiation-control licenses or equivalent state/federal authorizations, raising their upfront compliance and permitting costs and obligations. The practical shift falls most heavily on developers, the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, local governments, tribes, and certain state agencies. Developers gain a clear route (or obligation) into a state-level siting process and must budget for more studies and licensing; the council must expand outreach and government-to-government consultation and coordinate with archaeology and tribal resources; local governments and political subdivisions could assume ongoing maintenance, security, demolition, or other restoration costs and liabilities if unfinished fission sites are transferred to them; and Ecology may be required to create trust water rights within six months when water-right transfers aren’t possible. Some procedural details and exact threshold applications are not fully shown in the extracted text, so how broadly and quickly these duties would apply in practice is partly unclear.