5. Significant and Unavoidable Environmental Impacts

The proposed project would have significant and unavoidable impacts on biological resources, cultural resources, and greenhouse gas emissions. Construction of the proposed project would result in indirect or direct loss of the Mojave fringe-toed lizard and its sand dune habitat, and would contribute to a cumulatively considerable impact on this species and its habitat. Construction of the proposed project would cause an adverse change to known historic properties, it could cause an adverse change to unknown significant buried prehistoric and historical archaeological sites or buried Native American human remains, and it could cause an adverse change to traditional cultural properties. Finally, project activities would cause a net increase of greenhouse gas emissions.

All of the alternative sites, except for the Partial Avoidance Alternative, would have less than significant biological impacts. However, all of the alternative sites would have significant and unavoidable impacts on cultural resources and greenhouse gas emissions similar to those of the proposed project.