Department of Energy August 4, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (DOE) will prepare an EA and hold public scoping meetings on the proposed Federal action of granting a Presidential permit to Baja Wind U.S. Transmission, LLC (Baja Wind) to construct a new electric transmission line at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County, California, near the community of Jacumba. The proposed international transmission line would originate at a wind generation facility to be located in northern Baja California, Mexico, cross the U.S.-Mexico international border, and extend one mile into the U.S. where it would terminate at a substation to be constructed by San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) adjacent to the existing Southwest Powerlink (SWPL) 500-kV transmission line, located in San Diego County, California. Baja Wind has applied to DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) for a Presidential permit to construct either a double-circuit 230-kilovolt (kV) or a single-circuit 500-kV electric transmission line across the U.S. border with Mexico. The EA, entitled Baja Wind U.S. Transmission Environmental Assessment (DOE/EA-399) will address potential environmental impacts from the proposed action and the range of reasonable alternatives. The EA will be prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and applicable regulations, including Council on Environmental Quality NEPA Implementing Regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and DOE NEPA implementing regulations at 10 CFR Part 1021. It will help DOE determinie whether to prepare an EIS. Given that the proposed transmission line is short, and that the imports into the U.S. appear to be small, DOE believes an EA is appropriate. DOE invites the public to participate in determining the scope of the EA by suggesting alternatives and pointing out potential environmental impacts. If at any time during preparation of the EA DOE determines that an environmental impact statement (EIS) is needed, DOE will issue a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS in the Federal Register. In that case, this scoping process will serve as the scoping process that normally would follow a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS. Accordingly, DOE will consider any comments on the scope of the EA received during this scoping process in preparing such an EIS.