This Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) was prepared considering proposed amendments to the previously approved Blythe Solar Power Project (BSPP) right-of-way (ROW) grant. The BSPP received a ROW grant in 2010 to construct a 1,000-megawatt (MW) solar energy generating plant utilizing thermal parabolic trough technology on 6,831 acres of public land located near the City of Blythe in Riverside County, California (Approved Project). The current owner and holder of the BSPP right-of-way (ROW) grant (CACA-048811) has relinquished a portion of the original ROW and is requesting a variance from the existing approval to amend the grant to convert the BSPP to photovoltaic technology, reduce the size of the solar plant site, and reconfigure the solar plant site to allow transmission and access road corridors through the BSPP site for two projects proposed to the north (Modified Project). The pending decision on the BSPP is whether to approve, approve with modifications, or deny issuance of a modified ROW grant.

The Palm Springs South Coast Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared this Final Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIS) for the Modified Blythe Solar Power Project Proposed Amendment to Right-of-Way (ROW) Grant CACA 048811 in response to a Level 3 variance application filed by NextEra Blythe Solar Energy Center, LLC, (Grant Holder) a wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources LLC. The variance application requests amendment of the 2010 ROW grant approved for the Blythe Solar Power Project (BSPP) to construct a 1,000-megawatt (MW) solar energy generating plant utilizing thermal parabolic trough technology on 6,831 acres of public land located near the City of Blythe in Riverside County, California.