Brandon Block

1 week ago | wenatcheeworld.com | Brandon Block

Kurt Beckett’s second meeting as chair of Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council went smoothly, once he figured out how to turn on his microphone. Beckett named various energy plants that had applied for or received permits from EFSEC — an obscure agency at the heart of the state’s energy transition — and a staffer read updates on each.

2 weeks ago | chronline.com | Brandon Block

Kurt Beckett’s second meeting as chair of Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council went smoothly, once he figured out how to turn on his microphone. Beckett named various energy plants that had applied for or received permits from EFSEC – an obscure agency at the heart of the state’s energy transition – and a staffer read updates on each. He called out Horse Heaven Hills, a wind farm proposed near the Tri-Cities that would be the state’s largest.

2 weeks ago | cascadepbs.org | Brandon Block

Beckett possessed an inside view into the wind farm dispute – thanks to his recent work for a Seattle lobbying firm, which included promoting the wind farm and facilitating meetings between the developer, Scout Clean Energy, and local Tri-Cities groups. He listed off the next project, Hop Hill, a solar plant whose developer also paid Beckett to promote the project. Next: another solar farm – and another former client of Beckett’s.

1 month ago | cascadepbs.org | Brandon Block

The Trump administration announced the cancellation of a federal grant to build a levee along the Hoquiam River, seen here in Hoquiam in 2022. (Genna Martin/Cascade PBS) The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced last week its intention to cancel a disaster relief program that had promised more than $80 million to build a levee in flood-prone Grays Harbor County. Without the federal money, local officials told The Daily World that the project is dead in the water.

1 month ago | cascadepbs.org | Brandon Block

Wind turbines, as part of the Nine Canyon Wind Project located southeast of Kennewick are seen from Horse Heaven Hills on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Emree Weaver for Cascade PBS) Washington has ambitious climate goals and massive energy needs. But as proposals for renewable energy projects emerge, so does opposition. In fact, as Cascade PBS investigative reporter Brandon Block discovered, the fight against wind and solar development seems as fierce as the fight for it.