"Opponents still have a chance to stop the project before it breaks ground next year."
"Federal energy regulators last Thursday greenlit a roughly $2 billion renewable energy megaproject on a Yakama Nation sacred site overlooking the Columbia River in Klickitat County.
The 40-year federal license requires the project to break ground within two years, although it still faces legal challenges, said Erik Steimle, who is leading the project for Rye Development. The new license is the final legal approval needed to move the project into construction, Steimle said.
The site is used for ceremonies as well as treaty-reserved fishing and root gathering, and has been a village location for the Yakama Nation since time immemorial, said Elaine Harvey, who is a conservation scientist and member of the Yakama’s Kamíłpa Band, which is from the area.
But if the Goldendale Energy Storage Project is built, the hillside would become a giant hydropower generator producing enough electricity to power 500,000 homes for 12 hours. It would work by dropping 2.3 billion gallons of water sitting in a man-made reservoir atop the bluff about 2,000 feet down a large tunnel drilled into the rock. After flowing through turbines, water would then be pumped back to the top reservoir to repeat the cycle."
Henry Brannan reports for the Washington State Standard February 2, 2026.
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