[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 208 (Monday, October 28, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57727-57728]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23524]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-10001-15-OA]


Notification of a Public Meeting and Two Public Teleconferences 
of the Science Advisory Board Computable General Equilibrium Model 
Review Panel

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Announcement of a public meeting and two teleconferences.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory 
Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a public meeting and two public 
teleconferences of the SAB Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model 
Review Panel to discuss its review of a CGE model from the EPA's 
National Center for Environmental Economics.

DATES: The public meeting will be held on November 22, 2019, from 8:30 
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). The public teleconferences will be 
held on December 12, 2019, from 12:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) and 
January 31, 2020, from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
    Location: The public meeting will be held at the Residence Inn, 
2850 South Potomac Avenue, Arlington, VA 22202. The public 
teleconferences will be held by telephone only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  Any member of the public wishing 
further information regarding the public teleconference may contact Dr. 
Holly Stallworth, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), SAB Staff Office, 
by telephone at (202) 564-2073 or email at stallworth.holly@epa.gov. 
The SAB mailing address is U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board (1400R), 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 
Washington, DC 20460. General information about the SAB, including 
information concerning the SAB teleconference announced in this notice, 
can be found at the SAB web page at http://epa.gov/sab.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: The SAB was established pursuant to the Environmental 
Research, Development, and Demonstration Authorization Act (ERDAA) 
codified at 42 U.S.C. 4365, to provide independent scientific and 
technical peer review, advice, consultation, and recommendations to the 
EPA Administrator on the technical basis for Agency positions and 
regulations. The SAB is a Federal Advisory Committee chartered under 
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C., App. 2. The SAB 
will comply with the provisions of FACA and all appropriate SAB Staff 
Office procedural policies. Pursuant to FACA and EPA policy, notice is 
hereby given that the SAB CGE Model Review Panel will hold a public 
meeting and two public teleconferences to discuss its review of a CGE 
model from EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics. The Panel 
will provide advice to the Administrator through the chartered SAB. 
Background information on the SAB CGE Model Review Panel can be found 
at https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/02ad90b136fc21ef85256eba00436459/18a2abac2e4b5ec9852583bc004ce70a!OpenDocument. Another Federal Register 
Notice (84 FR 38252-38253) announced a public orientation 
teleconference held on August 22, 2019.
    The public meeting on November 22, 2019, will allow the CGE Model 
Review Panel to discuss its responses to charge questions from the 
National Center for Environmental Economics. Preliminary draft 
responses to charge questions from individual panelists will be posted 
at the meeting web page prior to the meeting. To find the web page, go 
to http://epa.gov/sab, click on the calendar then click on the meeting 
date. The public teleconference on December 12, 2019, will allow the 
CGE Model Review Panel to continue its discussions of responses to 
NCEE's charge questions and the public teleconference on January 31, 
2020 will allow the CGE Model Review Panel to resolve any final issues 
regarding the language in its draft report.
    All draft reports developed by SAB panels, committees or workgroups 
are reviewed and approved by the Chartered SAB through a quality review 
process before being finalized and transmitted to the EPA 
Administrator.
    Availability of the meeting and teleconference materials: For each 
meeting or teleconference, the web page may be found by going to http://epa.gov/sab, clicking on ``Upcoming and Recent Meeting'' then clicking 
on the calendar then clicking on the meeting date. An agenda will be 
posted prior to each meeting as well as any draft individual comments 
or draft panel report. All materials from EPA, including presentations 
and the charge questions, may be found on these web pages as well. The 
CGE model source code and documentation as well as memos on model 
versioning and potential near-term model improvements will be posted. 
While the source code and documentation will be available to the 
public, some of the data to run the model is proprietary and would have 
to be purchased from The IMPLAN Group LLC (implan.com). Instructions 
and source code to build the model's dataset from the IMPLAN data are 
posted. For questions concerning EPA's review materials on its CGE 
model, please contact Dr. Ann Wolverton, EPA National Center for 
Environmental Economics at wolverton.ann@epa.gov or 202-566-2278.

[[Page 57728]]

    Procedures for Providing Public Input: Public comment for 
consideration by EPA's federal advisory committees and panels has a 
different purpose from public comment provided to the EPA program 
offices. Therefore, the process for submitting comments to a federal 
advisory committee is different from the process used to submit 
comments to an EPA program office.
    Federal advisory committees and panels, including scientific 
advisory committees, provide independent advice to the EPA. Members of 
the public can submit relevant comments on the topic of this advisory 
activity, including the charge to the panel and the EPA review 
documents, and/or the group conducting the activity, for the SAB to 
consider during the advisory process. Input from the public to the SAB 
will have the most impact if it consists of comments that provide 
specific scientific or technical information or analysis for the SAB 
panel to consider or if it relates to the clarity or accuracy of the 
technical information.
    Oral Statements: In general, individuals or groups requesting an 
oral presentation at the will be limited to five minutes per speaker. 
Interested parties should contact Dr. Holly Stallworth, DFO, in writing 
(preferably via email), at the contact information noted above by 
November 15, 2019, to be placed on the list of public speakers for the 
public meeting. For the public teleconferences, deadlines for 
contacting Dr. Stallworth to be placed on the list of speakers are 
December 5, 2019, and January 25, 2020, respectively.
    Written Statements: Written statements will be accepted throughout 
the advisory process; however, for timely consideration by Panel 
members, statements should be supplied to the DFO (preferably via 
email) at the contact information noted above by November 15, 2019, for 
consideration at the public meeting on November 22, 2019. For the 
public teleconferences, the deadlines for submitting written comments 
are December 5, 2019, and January 25, 2020, respectively. It is the SAB 
Staff Office general policy to post written comments on the web page 
for the advisory meeting or teleconference. Submitters are requested to 
provide an unsigned version of each document because the SAB Staff 
Office does not publish documents with signatures on its website. 
Members of the public should be aware that their personal contact 
information, if included in any written comments, may be posted to the 
SAB website. Copyrighted material will not be posted without explicit 
permission of the copyright holder.
    Accessibility: To request accommodation of a disability, please 
contact Dr. Stallworth at 202-564-2073 or stallworth.holly@epa.gov. To 
request accommodation of a disability please contact Dr. Stallworth, 
preferably at least ten days prior to the teleconference, to give the 
EPA as much time as possible to process your request.

    Dated: October 7, 2019.
Khanna Johnston,
Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. 2019-23524 Filed 10-25-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P


