Audubon Washington’s Clean Energy Success Story
Birds are resilient creatures, as are the people who work tirelessly to protect them. I’ve had the honor of working “for the birds” for the past four years. I’m proud of my team’s accomplishments in those four years, especially considering the historic challenges we’ve faced. From passing four landmark climate bills to proactively identifying emerging climate policies, Audubon Washington has been successful beyond any reasonable expectations.
Evolving Through Challenges
In my first few years at Audubon Washington, we had the resources and staffing necessary to run successful state-level policy campaigns in complicated multi-sector coalitions. Our team ran impactful multi-prong campaigns while also innovating and identifying new policy opportunities in clean energy siting that are now recognized in local and national media, by state and federal leaders, and increasingly, the climate-donor community.
At the beginning of 2020, we were working with Audubon’s Clean Energy Initiative (CEI) to deepen our collaboration on innovative clean energy siting work while also building a stronger chapter and member engagement program. We had plans in place to provide seasoned organizing staff the opportunity to exercise more autonomy in developing a field engagement program that would grow the advocacy muscle of Audubon Washington’s state office and network of 25 chapters.
Then, quickly, everything changed. Pandemic-induced fear ripped through every individual and every institution. Major layoffs at Audubon dismissed our front-line staff, mostly impacting our frontline educators and organizers. As our work lives became more challenging and uncertain, the wider world continued to spiral out of control — global pandemic raging, police brutality igniting a psychologically overwhelming reckoning with race, and then, an attack by electoral dissidents on our hallowed halls of governance.
We were all pushed to our limits, but we soldiered on. As a small but mighty team, Audubon Washington continued to do good work, developing ambitious but attainable conservation strategies across our state programs and pulling off two successful virtual advocacy days while lean on network engagement staff.
Clean Energy Success
In the face of these challenges, we continued our successful campaign to advance responsible clean energy siting solutions in Washington’s increasingly wildfire-prone Sagelands. In 2021, we succeeded in funding Washington State University’s Least-Conflict Solar Siting project, while also securing state funding for long-term fire response and resilience planning. We also passed legislation that supports solar projects benefiting low-income Washingtonians and creates the first-ever statutory definition of “preferred sites” for solar energy generation.
Bringing the least-conflict process to Washington State required getting buy-in from state officials and key legislators. Working with Garry George, Director of Audubon’s Clean Energy Initiative, we convened a well-attended online education session where leaders of Washington State natural resource agencies could learn from the experience of leaders in California’s San Joaquin least-conflict process. This built critical support while our state office and local chapters also engaged Republican state legislators who sponsored efforts to fund the process in eastern Washington. Finally, we simultaneously elevated this issue in local media with op-eds, letters to the editor, and story pitches to reporters. In the end, the Seattle Times editorial board strongly supported our efforts.
Our efforts on clean energy siting were further bolstered by additional collaboration with CEI, which provided the technical expertise to develop a first-of-its-kind Clean Energy Screening Tool. As a national organization with independent local affiliated chapters, our work promoting clean energy has the potential to conflict with the land-use preferences of local chapters. The Screening Tool makes it possible for our state office staff to work more collaboratively with local chapters, identifying bird and habitat impacts of clean energy projects while finding opportunities to make recommendations to improve project proposals. This tool, and the proactive planning policies we advocate for, demonstrate Audubon’s continued leadership in advancing climate solutions that protect important conservation values.
Audubon Washington is poised to do great things. And while I’m proud of the role I’ve played in all of our success, none of it would have happened without the resources and entrepreneurialism of those first two years, the never-give-up attitude of our overstretched staff in the last two, and the unique collaboration with CEI. As we look to the future, we have an abundance of opportunities to build on our clean energy siting work, advancing smart planning policies, and building more on-the-ground support for responsibly-sited clean energy projects. Our work is also a shining example of what’s possible in other states, as clean energy siting becomes one of the key climate issues of the 2020s and beyond.
