The first meeting will be 5-8 p.m. Monday at the Black Pearl on the Columbia in Washougal. Skamania and Klickitat counties will also have meetings on the following days. All can be attended remotely .

The Cascade Renewable Transmission project aims to beef up power transmission between where electricity is generated east of the Cascades and where it’s consumed, which is in population centers along the Interstate 5 corridor.

It would also move power past transmission bottlenecks in Portland to an important north-south high-voltage transmission route, and to data centers on the city’s west side.

The project submitted a 1,421-page permit application to Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council in October.

“The situation is growing worse by the day in terms of availabl

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