$10 million for new energy institute at WSU Tri-Cities

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Gov. Jay Inslee will seek $10 million in 2023 to establish the Institute for Northwest Energy Futures at Washington State University Tri-Cities.

The move fulfills the dream of the late Bob Ferguson, an influential U.S. Department of Energy and Energy Northwest executive who endowed the institute’s first chair with a $500,000 gift shortly before his death in August.

Inslee announced his intent to fund the institute at a press conference in Richland on Dec. 12, where he was flanked by Kirk Schultz, president of WSU, Sandra Haynes, chancellor of WSU Tri-Cities, and Sen.-elect Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick.

Boehnke, the House member who will take his seat in the state senate in January, is a longtime advocate for building on the Mid-Columbia’s energy assets, including its physical capacity to generate power as well as the technical know-how of its many engineers and scientists.

“Do we want to be known as the center of the universe for clean energy? Yes.”

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