Cities to hold public hearings for battery site moratoriums
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Snoqualmie is also bringing in experts to analyze battery site impact.
After every Snoqualmie Valley city passed a moratorium on battery energy storage sites, the cities are now preparing to develop municipal code that will dictate how applications for development of these sites will be handled.
Each city passed a moratorium on battery energy storage sites (BESS) in the last couple of months. These moratoriums created a 12-month pause on applications for and/or development of BESSs, giving local officials time to learn about BESSs and create code to regulate them.
Snoqualmie is currently the only city that has a potential BESS nearby, though the proposed site from Jupiter Power would reside in unincorporated King County.
At its meeting June 22, Snoqualmie City Council approved $450,000 to hire an “expert team” that will help the city learn more about the proposed BESS and respond accordingly.
These funds, which are coming out of the city’s fund balance (a savings account, more or less), will pay for outside counsel, a stormwater management and noise analysis, a city water resources analysis and an assessment of the BESS’s potential hazards.
Snoqualmie City Council also recently created a BESS working group that is c0-chaired by the local anti-BESS nonprofit Snoqualmie Valley for Responsible Energy (SVRE). Residents are invited to observe group sessions, which are held every Wednesday from 5-6:30 p.m. at the Snoqualmie Fire Department.
Recently, SVRE retained its own land use lawyers and says it will “continue to pursue all available legal, regulatory, public-records, public-comment and community-engagement avenues to oppose the Cascadia Ridge project.”
Public hearings
Duvall’s public hearing regarding its moratorium will be during its July 7 city council meeting, which is at 7 p.m. in the Duvall Visitor Center.
Snoqualmie’s public hearing regarding its moratorium will be during the July 13 City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.
North Bend and Carnation have already held public hearings related to their BESS moratoriums.
To read past stories about the BESS situation in Snoqualmie, visit “Timeline: Record coverage of Snoqualmie’s battery energy storage site” at valleyrecord.com.
