[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 170 (Thursday, September 1, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54454-54456]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-22403]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Issuance of Loan Guarantee to Genesis Solar, LLC, for the Genesis 
Solar Energy Project

AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Record of Decision.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces its decision to 
issue a loan guarantee under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 
2005 (EPAct 2005) to Genesis Solar, LLC, for construction and startup 
of the Genesis Solar Energy Project (GSEP), a 250-megawatt (MW) nominal 
capacity solar power generating facility on approximately 1,950 acres, 
all of which is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in Riverside County, California. The 
environmental impacts of constructing and operating this project were 
analyzed pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 
Plan Amendment/Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Genesis 
Solar Energy Project, Riverside County, California (75 Federal Register 
[FR] 52736; August 27, 2010) (Final EIS), prepared by the BLM Palm 
Springs-South Coast Field Office with DOE as a cooperating agency. BLM 
consulted DOE during preparation of the EIS, DOE provided comments, and 
BLM addressed those comments in the Final EIS. DOE subsequently 
determined that its own NEPA procedures had been satisfied and adopted 
the Final EIS. (75 FR 78993; December 17, 2010)

ADDRESSES: Copies of this Record of Decision (ROD) and the Final EIS 
may be obtained by contacting Matthew McMillen, NEPA Compliance 
Officer, Environmental Compliance Division, Loan Programs Office (LP-
10), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585; telephone 202-586-7248; or e-mail 
[email protected]. The Final EIS and this ROD are also 
available on the DOE NEPA Web site at: http://nepa.energy.gov, and on 
the Loan Programs Web site at: http://www.loanprograms.energy.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about this 
ROD, contact Matthew McMillen, as indicated in the ADDRESSES section 
above. For general information about the DOE NEPA process, contact 
Carol Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance (GC-
54), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585; telephone 202-586-4600; leave a message at 800-
472-2756; or e-mail [email protected]. Information about DOE NEPA 
activities and access to DOE NEPA documents are available through the 
DOE NEPA Web site at http://nepa.energy.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The GSEP is a proposed concentrating solar electrical generating 
facility using parabolic trough technology with a dry-cooling system 
and associated facilities located on approximately 1,950 acres of BLM-
administered Federal land in Riverside County, California, 
approximately 27 miles east of the unincorporated community of Desert 
Center and 25 miles west of the Arizona-California border city of 
Blythe. The GSEP will consist of two independent solar electric 
generating facilities with a net electrical output of 125 MW each, 
resulting in a total net electrical output of 250 MW. In addition to 
the generating facility, the project includes a distribution line, a 
14-mile electrical transmission line, fiber-optic lines, a natural-gas 
pipeline, and a 6.5-mile access road. A double-circuit 230-kilovolt 
(kV) transmission line will be constructed to connect to the Southern 
California Edison Colorado River substation via the existing Blythe 
Energy Project Transmission Line between the Julian Hinds and Buck 
substations. The linear facilities will encompass approximately 90 
acres outside the proposed project site.
    On January 31, 2007, BLM's Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office 
received an application pursuant to Title V of the Federal Land Policy 
and Management Act (43 United States Code [U.S.C.] 1761) for a right-
of-way (ROW) to construct, operate, maintain, and decommission a 
project identified as the NextEra Ford Dry Lake Solar Power Plant on 
BLM-administered Federal land in Riverside County, California. In June 
2009, the applicant notified BLM that the company name was being 
changed to Genesis Solar, LLC, and the project became known as the 
Genesis Solar Energy Project (GSEP). The BLM California Desert 
Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan requires that all sites associated with 
power generation or transmission not identified in the CDCA Plan be 
considered through the plan amendment process. BLM approved the 
Proposed Plan Amendment to the CDCA Plan to allow the GSEP and approved 
a solar energy ROW to Genesis Solar, LLC, for the project; on November 
4, 2010, the Secretary of the Interior approved these decisions.
    In June 2010, Genesis Solar, LLC applied to DOE for a loan 
guarantee under Title XVII of EPAct 2005, as amended by Section 406 of 
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (Recovery Act) On 
September 1, 2010, DOE invited the applicant to submit a Part II 
application in accordance with the DOE Federal Loan Guarantee 
Solicitation for Commercial Technology Renewable Energy Generation 
Projects under the Financial Institution Partnership Program, No. DE-
FOA-0000166. On November 17, 2010, Genesis Solar, LLC submitted its 
Part II application for an $800 million loan guarantee to support the 
financing of the GSEP.

NEPA Review

    BLM was the lead Federal agency in the preparation of the Genesis 
Solar Energy Project EIS, and DOE was a cooperating agency pursuant to 
a Memorandum of Agreement between DOE and BLM signed in January 2010. 
DOE reviewed the content of the draft EIS and provided comments to BLM 
to ensure that the DOE NEPA regulations (10 Code of Federal Regulations 
part 1021) were satisfied.
    On November 23, 2009, the BLM published the ``Notice of Intent to 
Prepare an Environmental Impact

[[Page 54455]]

Statement/Staff Assessment for the NextEra Ford Dry Lake Solar Power 
Plant, Riverside County, CA, and Possible Land Use Plan Amendment'' in 
the Federal Register (74 FR 61167), with a 30-day scoping period for 
public comments that closed on December 23, 2009. The project name 
later changed to Genesis Solar Energy Project. The Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) published a Notice of Availability of the Draft 
EIS and the Draft CDCA Plan Amendment for GSEP in the Federal Register 
on April 9, 2010 (75 FR 18204). The Draft EIS was available for a 90-
day public comment period, which closed on July 8, 2010. Comments 
received on the Draft EIS were addressed in the Plan Amendment and 
Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Genesis Solar Energy 
Project, and EPA published a Notice of Availability in the Federal 
Register on August 27, 2010 (75 FR 52736). BLM made the Final EIS 
available for an additional 30-day public review and comment period 
from August 27 to September 27, 2010. All substantive comments received 
during the 30-day public review and comment period were responded to in 
Appendix 1 of the Record of Decision for the Genesis Solar Energy 
Project and Amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area 
Resource Management Plan, Riverside County, CA (BLM ROD). BLM published 
its ROD in the Federal Register on November 12, 2010 (75 FR 69458). 
Links to these documents can be found at the BLM Web site: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/energy/fasttrack/genesis/fedstatus.html.
    On October 7, 2010, DOE received a comment letter from the 
California Unions for Reliable Energy (CURE) regarding Colorado River 
water rights and the need for an approved water allocation for GSEP. 
DOE reviewed the comment responses prepared by BLM and published in the 
Final EIS and the information provided in the BLM ROD, and concurs with 
BLM as stated in its ROD that:

    The BLM has thoroughly reviewed the regulatory framework 
regarding the use of the accounting surface methodology of 
determining impacts to the Colorado River and determined that no 
formal regulation exists that requires Genesis to acquire an 
allocation at this time. The Bureau of Reclamation has not finalized 
its rule on the accounting surface methodology for the Colorado 
River. This ROD recognizes that, should a rulemaking be finalized on 
the currently proposed accounting surface method, the BLM will work 
with Genesis to ensure that appropriate processes are followed to 
obtain such an allocation. (BLM ROD, Section 1.2, page 13)

Alternatives Considered

    BLM considered six alternatives: (1) The project identified in the 
Final EIS as the Proposed Action (parabolic trough technology with wet 
cooling); (2) the Dry Cooling Alternative (identified in the Final EIS 
as the Preferred Alternative and ultimately selected by BLM); (3) the 
Reduced Acreage Alternative; (4) No Action Alternative A; (5) No Action 
Alternative B; and (6) No Action Alternative C (under which no ROW 
grant for the GSEP would be authorized but the CDCA Plan would be 
amended). Chapter 2 of the Final EIS describes these alternatives in 
detail, and they are fully analyzed in Chapters 3 and 4 of the Final 
EIS.
    The Dry Cooling Alternative, identified as the BLM Selected 
Alternative in the BLM ROD, requires mitigation measures identified in 
Chapter 4 of the Final EIS; the complete language of these measures, 
terms, and conditions is provided in Appendix G, Conditions of 
Certification, of the Final EIS. BLM has incorporated these 
requirements as terms and conditions into the ROW. In addition, BLM 
developed a Compliance Monitoring Plan, which is included as Appendix 6 
to the BLM ROD.
    The DOE decision is whether or not to issue a loan guarantee to 
Genesis Solar, LLC for $800 million to support construction and startup 
of the GSEP. Accordingly, the DOE alternatives in the Final EIS are (1) 
Issue the loan guarantee for construction and startup of the GSEP under 
the Dry Cooling Alternative identified as the BLM Selected Alternative 
in the BLM ROD, and (2) the No Action Alternative. Under the No Action 
Alternative, DOE would not issue a loan guarantee for the project, and 
it is not likely that Genesis Solar, LLC would implement the project as 
currently planned.

Environmentally Preferable Alternative

    The BLM ROD identifies three environmentally preferable 
alternatives: (1) No Action Alternative A, under which BLM would not 
approve the ROW for the GSEP and would not amend the CDCA Plan; (2) No 
Action Alternative B, under which BLM would not authorize the ROW for 
the GSEP but would amend the CDCA Plan to make the project site 
unavailable for any type of solar energy development; and (3) the Dry 
Cooling Alternative, under which the project would use dry cooling 
technology to generate the same energy output using the same footprint 
but would reduce water consumption by 87%. No Action Alternatives A and 
B would not have impacts on the ground. However, neither of these 
alternatives would allow the development of renewable energy, which is 
a national priority. The Dry Cooling Alternative is the BLM Preferred 
Alternative in the Final EIS and is identified as the Selected 
Alternative in the BLM ROD because it allows the development of 
renewable energy. No wetlands would be filled and no delineated 
floodplains would be affected under the Dry Cooling Alternative.
    DOE has decided that its Alternative 1, to issue a loan guarantee 
for construction and startup of the GSEP under the Dry Cooling 
Alternative, is environmentally preferable. DOE has determined that 
this alternative offers environmental benefits due to a reduction in 
impacts to water resources, while allowing the project's total 
generation capacity of 250 MW of renewable energy development. In 
addition, DOE has determined that this alternative offers substantial 
environmental benefits due to anticipated reductions in greenhouse gas 
emissions as described in the Final EIS, and that all practicable means 
to avoid or minimize environmental harm, as described in the BLM ROD 
and its appendices for the GSEP, are adopted as required mitigation 
measures by BLM.

Consultation

    As the lead Federal agency for the GSEP, BLM complied with Section 
106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and consulted with the 
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the California State 
Historic Preservation Officer, and interested Native American tribes; 
complied with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the Bald and 
Golden Eagle Protection Act and consulted with the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service; and entered into government-to-government 
consultations with a number of tribal governments. In addition, BLM 
consulted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which determined that 
the project site does not impact waters of the United States and that a 
Clean Water Act permit will not be required, and the State of 
California and Riverside County regarding compliance with state and 
local laws. Section 5.5 of the BLM ROD summarizes consultations with 
agencies and other entities.

Intentional Destructive Acts

    As a part of its own review, DOE verified that the potential 
environmental impact of acts of terrorism, sabotage or other 
intentional destructive acts was considered in the Final EIS. DOE 
concluded that the proposed GSEP presents an unlikely

[[Page 54456]]

target for an act of terrorism or sabotage. Further, as discussed in 
the Final EIS, the site security measures provide appropriate levels of 
security to protect electrical infrastructure from malicious mischief, 
vandalism, or domestic/foreign terrorist attacks.

Decision

    DOE has decided to issue a loan guarantee for construction and 
startup of GSEP under the Dry Cooling Alternative, as described in the 
Final EIS and BLM ROD.
    Approval of the loan guarantee for GSEP responds to the DOE purpose 
and need pursuant to Section 1705 of EPAct 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16511-
16514), which was added to EPAct 2005 by the Recovery Act. Section 1705 
authorizes a program for rapid deployment of renewable energy projects 
and related manufacturing facilities, electric power transmission 
projects, and leading-edge biofuels projects. The primary purposes of 
the Recovery Act are job preservation and creation, infrastructure 
investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the 
unemployed, and state and local fiscal stabilization. The Section 1705 
program is designed to address the economic conditions of the Nation, 
in part, through renewable energy, transmission, and leading-edge 
biofuels projects. Eligible projects must commence construction by 
September 30, 2011.

Mitigation

    The GSEP project for which DOE has decided to issue a loan 
guarantee includes mitigation measures, terms, and conditions applied 
by BLM in its ROW. The mitigation measures, terms, and conditions 
represent practicable means to avoid or minimize environmental impacts 
from the selected alternative (the Dry Cooling Alternative). BLM is 
lead Federal agency for the GSEP project under NEPA and is responsible 
for ensuring compliance with all adopted mitigation measures, terms, 
and conditions for the GSEP project set forth in the Final EIS and ROD. 
The complete language of the mitigation measures, terms, and conditions 
is provided in Appendix G of the Final EIS, and the Compliance 
Monitoring Plan is provided in Appendix 6 of the BLM ROD. BLM has also 
incorporated the mitigation measures, terms, and conditions into the 
ROW as terms and conditions.
    The DOE loan guarantee agreement requires that the applicant comply 
with all applicable laws and the terms of the ROW, including mitigation 
measures. An applicant's failure to comply with applicable laws and the 
ROW would constitute a default. Upon continuance of a default, DOE 
would have the right under the loan guarantee agreement between DOE and 
the applicant to exercise usual and customary remedies. To ensure that 
the applicant so performs, the Loan Programs Office monitors all 
operative loan guarantee transactions.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on August 25, 2011.
Jonathan M. Silver,
Executive Director, Loan Programs Office.
[FR Doc. 2011-22403 Filed 8-31-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-10-P