On September 26, 2018, the Office of Electricity issued the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Energia Sierra Juarez U.S. Transmission Line Project (DOE/EIS-0414-S1). DOE prepared this SEIS in compliance with the Council on Environmental Quality regulations for implementing NEPA (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508) and DOE’s NEPA regulations (10 CFR Part 1021). The purpose and need for DOE’s preparation of this SEIS to the ESJ Transmission Line Project Final EIS (DOE/EIS-0414) is to respond to the August 29, 2017 order by Southern District of California. DOE accepted public comments on the Supplement to the U.S. Energia Sierra Juarez (ESJ) Transmission Line Project Final EIS (DOE/SEIS-0414) for a 45-day comment period beginning on Friday, October 19, 2018 and closing on Tuesday, December 4, 2018.
On June 8, 2012, DOE released the (Final EIS) that analyzed the potential environmental impacts associated with the Presidential permit (PP) requested by the applicant, Energia Sierra Juarez U.S. Transmission, LLC (ESJ U.S.). The Final EIS that is supplemented by this SEIS, Read the Record of Decision (issued August 17, 2012), and other related documents.
On August 31, 2012, DOE issued a Presidential permit to on ESJ U.S. (PP-334) for the proposed ESJ U.S. electric transmission line to cross the U.S.-Mexico international border, near the town of Jacumba, California. The ESJ U.S. transmission line, and an associated transmission line and wind farm in Mexico (constructed by an ESJ affiliate) were completed and operational by June 2015.
DOE’s issuance of PP-334 was challenged in an action filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California (“the Court”) in December 2012. In August 2017, the Court remanded the case to DOE for preparation of an SEIS to address two cited deficiencies in DOE’s Final EIS identified by the Court. The Court issued it's judgment that the cited deficiencies were not serious, were not likely to have resulted in erroneous permitting decision, and could be readily addressed in a SEIS by incorporating analyses previously performed by other regulatory agencies in the U.S and Mexico. The Court did not vacate PP-334 pending DOE’s completion of this SEIS.
As a result, the SEIS to the DOE ESJ Project Final EIS includes the consideration of distributed power generation (generating power closer to the point of consumption, such as rooftop solar panels) as an alternative to the U.S. ESJ transmission line. This SEIS also includes an evaluation of potential environmental impacts in Mexico from the associated transmission line and wind farm in Mexico by incorporating analyses previously performed by the appropriate regulatory or permitting agencies in Mexico.
The U.S. ESJ transmission line continues to operate, transmitting electricity generated at the Mexican Wind Farm to the electric grid in California.