Anacortes planning commission hears public concerns over climate-element edits, battery storage and refineries

The Anacortes Planning Commission on April 23 held a public hearing on proposed amendments to the climate element and the environment and conservation element of the 2025 Comprehensive Plan, hearing concerns about proposed references to energy storage and the local impact of March Point refineries.

Planning staff member Libby Graige opened the item and introduced Katie Saunders, a consultant with Makers, who reviewed a set of largely editorial changes to draft climate goals and policies. Saunders said the edits trimmed repeated wording, rephrased an introductory goal from “climate change leadership” to language that “focused on kind of build local capacity,” and removed some specificity previously listed under CE‑6. “We removed that specificity there, but otherwise kept the statement as is,” Saunders said, describing the changes as mostly non‑substantive text edits.

The hearing drew multiple members of the public who pressed the commission to reconsider or clarify changes they said could enable large battery energy storage projects and asked the city to more directly address impacts from the March Point refineries. Suzanne Roner of Anacortes said she…