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OLYMPIA, Wash. 鈥� Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has approved a revised plan for a massive wind farm after rejecting a sharply slimmed-down version earlier this year.

Inslee urged permitting officials to work quickly to allow the construction of as many Horse Heaven Wind Farm turbines as possible,聽The Seattle Times reported. Washington state won鈥檛 meet its 鈥渦rgent clean energy needs鈥� if officials take years to authorize the turbines, he said.

Originally, the $1.7 billion proposal called for construction of up to 222 wind turbines across 24 miles of hillsides in the Tri-Cities area of eastern Washington and three solar arrays covering up to 8.5 square miles.

But then Washington鈥檚 Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, a clearinghouse for permits required for large projects, recommended slashing the proposal in half because nests of the endangered ferruginous hawk were found in the area. It wanted a 2-mile buffer around each nest.

Most nests were empty, but the hawks can return to them years later.

In May,聽Inslee rejected聽the council鈥檚 recommendation to shrink the project, prompting the panel to suggest a compromise that would examine turbines and nests on a case-by-case basis. Under this plan, which Inslee formally approved Oct. 18, a technical advisory group would recommend whether to reduce individual nest setbacks to 0.6 of a mile.

This could allow the developer, Boulder, Colorado-based Scout Clean Energy, to build all but 30 of the turbines originally proposed.

The wind farm project, since it was first proposed in 2021, has pitted local opponents against the state鈥檚 ever-growing need for renewable energy. In a letter to the site evaluation council, Inslee noted that Washington鈥檚 energy demands could nearly double by 2050.