Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan Environmental Scoping Phase

Owner/Client:      California Energy Commission

In response the Executive Order #S-14-08, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in November 2008, the California Energy Commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife initiated the California Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) under the auspices of a joint Federal/State Renewable Energy Action Team. The California Energy Commission, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management signed a Memorandum of Understanding as the Renewable Energy Action Team. The goal of DRECP was to balance sensitive species and natural community conservation with the need for substantial additional renewable energy generation in California. Ascent served as the consultant project manager for the environmental scoping phase of the DRECP EIR/EIS. The EIR/EIS was aimed at evaluating the effects of renewable energy projects in the Mojave and Colorado Desert regions. Ascent conducted a broad spectrum of preliminary environmental studies of expected covered activities (e.g., industrial-scale renewable energy generation projects, infrastructure improvements, and new transmission lines), organized and helped carry out public scoping meetings, and prepared a detailed Notice of Intent for NEPA and Notice of Preparation for CEQA. The results of Ascent’s work were presented in a detailed Scoping Report for the DRECP EIR/EIS, which provided the road map for the preparation of the plan’s environmental impact analysis in the Draft EIR/EIS.