OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has approved a revised plan for a proposed massive wind farm after he rejected a greatly scaled-down version earlier this year.

Inslee urged permitting officials to work quickly to allow construction of as many Horse Heaven wind farm turbines as possible. The Seattle Times reported. Washington state will not meet its “urgent clean energy needs” if officials take years to authorize the turbines, he said.

He original project of 1.7 billion dollars It included up to 222 wind turbines on 24 miles (38.6 kilometers) of hillsides in the Tri-Cities area of ​​eastern Washington and three solar panels covering up to 8.5 square miles (22 square kilometers).

But then Washington’s Energy Facilities Site Review Board, a clearinghouse for permits required for large projects, recommended cutting the proposal in half because nests of the endangered king hawk were found in the area. He wanted a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) buffer zone around each nest.

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

In May, inslee rejected the council’s recommendation to scale back the project, leading the panel to suggest a compromise that would examine the turbines and nests on a case-by-case basis. Under this plan, which Inslee formally approved on Oct. 18, a technical advisory group would recommend whether individual nest setbacks should be reduced to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles).

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

Inslee, a Democrat, has tried to make climate initiatives key to his legacy. He will not seek re-election after three terms.

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