9. Certification of EIS

As stated previously, where, as here, the project requires compliance with both CEQA and NEPA, CEQA encourages the state agency to use the EIS if that document is prepared before the state agency would otherwise prepare its own EIR so long as the EIS complies with the provisions of the CEQA Guidelines and is supplemented to include certain CEQA requirements that are not required pursuant to NEPA. (CEQA Guidelines § 15221; Pub. Resources Code § 21083.7.)

The EIS was completed after notice and opportunity for public comment on the scope of the environmental review and the draft EIS, as required by CEQA. The final EIS documents all written and oral comments made on the draft EIS, and responds to them, as required by CEQA. The EIS identifies the proposed project's significant and unavoidable environmental impacts and mitigation measures that will avoid or substantially lessen them. As required by CEQA (but not NEPA), Section 2.2.6 of the EIS identifies a combination of Gen-Tie GT-A-2, Red Bluff Substation A and Access Road 2, and either Solar Farm Layout C or Solar Farm Layout B as the environmentally superior alternative pursuant to CEQA, and Appendix C documents the details of the Energy Division's consideration and comparison of the three combinations of alternatives considered in full detail in the body of the EIS, as well as four additional technically feasible combinations of project components. Additionally, as required by CEQA (but not NEPA), the final EIS discusses growth-inducing effects in Section 4.18.4.

We have reviewed and considered the information contained in the EIS and believe it meets the requirements of CEQA. We certify that the EIS has been completed in compliance with CEQA that the final EIS was presented to us and we have reviewed and considered the information contained in it, and that the final EIS reflects our independent judgment and analysis.