Carriger Solar - final recommendation and governor's decision

The Council voted on June 25, 2025, to send the governor a recommendation to approve the draft site certification agreement for the Carriger Solar project.

Governor Ferguson returned the Council's recommendation on August 22, asking us to provide the Yakama Nation an opportunity to provide input on proposed mitigation measures to protect Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs), involving setbacks, screening tools, traffic control plans, and site restoration plans. The governor also directed EFSEC to provide the Yakama Nation an opportunity to review and provide input on a memorandum from the EFSEC chair to council membership describing a June 4, 2025, meeting that the EFSEC chair and staff had with the Tribal Council. Governor Ferguson directed us to complete these steps and resubmit a draft SCA to his office within 60 days.

As a consequence, we wrote to the Yakama Nation on August 26, asking them to review again the proposed mitigation measures designed to protect TCPs and giving them the memo from the chair to the council regarding the June discussions with the Yakama Nation Tribal Council. We requested a reply to our letter within 30 days, which we received on September 25 in the form of a letter from Yakama Nation Chairman Gerald Lewis. EFSEC staff evaluated and considered their comments, adding a section to the draft SCA to emphasize the developer’s commitment to fund future work on Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs) near the solar facility. Council members approved this revision at a special meeting on October 21; and the governor received the revised draft SCA on October 24 and has 60 days to approve or deny the Council's recommendation and revised draft SCA.

The Council voted on June 25, 2025, to send the governor a recommendation to approve the draft site certification agreement (SCA) for the Carriger Solar project.          

The governor returned the Council's recommendation on August 22, 2025, asking EFSEC to provide the Yakama Nation an opportunity to provide input on proposed mitigation measures to protect traditional cultural properties (TCPs), involving setbacks, screening tools, traffic control plans, and site restoration plans. The governor also directed us to provide the Yakama Nation with an opportunity to review and provide input on a memorandum from the EFSEC Chair to Council membership describing the chair and staff’s June 4, 2025, meeting with the Tribal Council. The governor directed us to complete these steps and resubmit a draft SCA to his office within 60 days.

EFSEC wrote a letter to the Yakama Nation on August 26, 2025, asking them to review the proposed mitigation measures designed to protect TCPs. We also provided the Tribe with the memorandum regarding the meeting that was held on June 4, 2025. We requested a reply to the letter within 30 days. We received their reply on September 25, 2025, in the form of a letter from Yakama Nation Chairman Gerald Lewis.

EFSEC staff evaluated and considered their comments, adding a section to the draft SCA to emphasize the developer’s commitment to fund future work on TCPs near the facility. Council members approved this revision at a special meeting on October 21, 2025, and the governor received the revised draft SCA on October 24, 2025.

On December 2, 2025, the Governor sent a letter to EFSEC Chair Kurt Beckett approving the revised draft SCA.