Avangrid, a renewable energy developer, has withdrawn its permit application to build an industrial-scale solar facility on Badger Mountain in Eastern Washington, a site sacred to Indigenous nations. The state's permitting council formally announced the withdrawal last week and said it was "closing out existing financial arrangements and notifying interested and agency partners."
The company sought for at least five years to build the solar plant on the mountain, which straddles private and public lands. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation hold protected rights to practice cultural traditions — including food gathering and ceremonies — on Badger Mountain.
What the Left Is Saying
Colville Tribes chair Cindy Marchand praised the decision in a statement, saying: "While the Colville Tribes certainly appreciates the value of renewable energy such as solar power, sacred sites must remain pristine to pass down to future generations."
Steven Wynecoop, vice chair of the Wenatchi Advisory Group — an independent body that advises the Colville Tribal Business Council and organized a 2024 demonstration on Badger Mountain — called the outcome good regardless of Avangrid's reasoning. "The mountain is a very sacred site to us," he said. "Generations, we've been going to that mountain for plenty of reasons: medicines, foods like roots and berries."
Tribal concerns were amplified by a 2024 investigation from High Country News and ProPublica finding that Avangrid and its consultant Tetra Tech omitted key archaeological and cultural information from the state-mandated site review. An elected Colville Tribal Business Council member told the newsrooms at the time that the project would destroy roughly half of the area's root vegetable harvest.
What the Right Is Saying
Avangrid has not explained why it withdrew its application, declining to clarify its reasoning in response to questions from High Country News. A company spokesperson previously said Avangrid followed "all relevant law and regulation" regarding the Badger Mountain project and had "taken additional steps to accommodate stakeholder feedback where possible."
At a July meeting of the state's permitting authority council, an Avangrid senior director requested a continued pause in permitting work, citing anticipated construction delays affecting the power grid. Council chair Kurt Beckett characterized concerns over the project's environmental and cultural impacts as "noise," while also saying tribal objections should be considered in the state's permitting decision.
What the Numbers Show
Avangrid pursued the Badger Mountain solar plant for at least five years before withdrawing its application. The site straddles private land and a public parcel owned by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, which said it had not received any other requests to develop the property for clean energy projects.
The Wenatchi-P'squosa are one of 12 Confederated Colville Tribes, and two tribal nations hold protected cultural rights on Badger Mountain. An elected member of the Colville Tribal Business Council estimated at the time that the project would have destroyed roughly half the root vegetable harvest in the area.
The Bottom Line
Because Avangrid declined to explain its reasoning, it is unclear whether Indigenous rights played a role in the cancellation. The state Department of Natural Resources did not provide additional information about future plans for the site, and no other developer has submitted a clean energy proposal there.
The withdrawal nonetheless marks a notable case study in how tribal cultural protections interact with renewable energy development — and what happens when developers pursue projects on ancestral lands. Tribal advocates have noted that the public comment process is one of the only avenues available to tribal nations seeking to protect their rights regarding land development.