Relationship Between the DOE Loan Guaranty and California Environmental Quality Act Environmental Review Processes

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) is involved in numerous geothermal research, development, demonstration and loan guard projects in the State of California. These projects often require the preparation of both an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), as required by California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Impact Statement (EIS) as required under NEPA. DOE adoption or utilization of information contained in EIR's to meet that agency's NEPA requirements and thereby reduce duplication of effort is dependant on four critical issues: 1) the scope of the proposed action analyzed, 2) the completeness of treatment of environmental issues, 3) the level of DOE involvement in EIR preparation, and 4) the timing of DOE involvement in EIR preparation. At this time, several constraints prevent the integration of the DOE Loan Guaranty and CEQA environmental review and documentation processes. First, the time required to complete an EIR (up to 2 years in some cases) is not compatible with DOE's goal of processing loan guaranty applications within a 4 month period. Second, the CEQA process is usually initiated and completed prior to DOE's involvement in the project. There fore, DOE often has no role in document preparation and must verify the content of an EIR before adopting or using that document and often must prepare a separate DOE EA even though an EIR exists.