External Peer Review Meeting Details for the Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress (External Review Draft, 2023)

EPA announced the availability of the Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress (External Review Draft) for a 60-day public comment which ends on March 6, 2023. [Federal Register Notice Jan 3, 2023]

Meeting Agenda: Biofuels and the Environment RtC3 Peer Review Meeting Final Agenda (Feb 2023)

Background

EPA announced the release of the draft report, Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress External Review Draft for public comment and external panel peer review. This report is responsive to Section 204 of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). This Third Triennial Report to Congress focuses on the dominant biofuel sources in the US: (1) domestic corn ethanol from corn starch, (2) domestic biodiesel from soybean oil, (3) domestic biodiesel from fats, oils, and greases (FOGs), and (4) imported ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane. The report was developed in close collaboration with USDA, DOE, and USGS. Peer review will be conducted under the framework of EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy and follow procedures established in EPA’s Peer Review Handbook 4th Edition, 2015 (EPA/100/B-15/001) and the Office of Management and Budget’s "Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review."

Registration and Meeting Details

ERG, an EPA contractor, is organizing an independent external peer review of EPA's draft report, Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress. The peer review meeting is open to anyone who would like to attend as an observer and will include a brief public comment period on the first day (February 24). Please register if you are interested in attending as an observer. If you would like to make an oral comment, please register no later than February 17th.

The peer review meeting will take place virtually via Zoom on:

  • Day 1: Friday, February 24, 2023: 11:00 AM – 6:45 PM EST
  • Day 2: Monday, February 27, 2023: 11:00 AM - 6:30 PM EST
  • Day 3: Tuesday, February 28, 2023: 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM EST
Link to register: https://projects.erg.com/conferences/peerreview/register-biofuels.html

Meeting Objective and Panel Details

In February 2022, EPA solicited nominations for peer review candidates to lead a review panel for the draft report. Relevant expertise of candidates included economics, engineering, agronomics, land use change, remote sensing, air quality, biogeochemistry, water quality, hydrology, conservation biology, limnology, and ecology fields of expertise. EPA’s contractor, ERG, received and screened the nominations to identify a pool of highly qualified candidates. In May and August 2022, EPA provided opportunities for the public to comment on the selected candidate pool to narrow the panel down to nine members. ERG selected the following final peer reviewers whose combined expertise best spans the above disciplines:
  1. Sarah C. Davis, Ph.D.; Ohio University
  2. Bernard A. Engel, Ph.D., P.E.; Purdue University
  3. Harry de Gorter, Ph.D.; Cornell University
  4. Jason D. Hill, Ph.D.; University of Minnesota
  5. S. Kent Hoekman, Ph.D.; Desert Research Institute (Panel Chair)
  6. Stephen R. Kaffka, Ph.D.; University of California, Davis
  7. Lyubov A. Kurkalova, Ph.D.; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
  8. Douglas A. Landis, Ph.D.; Michigan State University
  9. Aaron Smith, Ph.D.; University of California, Davis

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