[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 123 (Tuesday, June 28, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37099-37100]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-12710]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7929-4]


Science Advisory Board Staff Office; Notification of an Upcoming 
Science Advisory Board Meeting

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a 
public teleconference meeting of the chartered SAB to discuss two draft 
SAB reports.

DATES: July 13, 2005, 3-5 p.m. (eastern time).

ADDRESSES: The meeting for this review will be held by telephone only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Members of the public who wish to 
obtain further information regarding this teleconference meeting may 
contact Mr. Thomas O. Miller, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), U.S. 
EPA Science Advisory Board via phone (202-343-9982) or e-mail at 
[email protected].
    The SAB Mailing address is: U.S. EPA, Science Advisory Board 
(1400F), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460. General 
information about the SAB, as well as any updates concerning the 
meeting announced in this notice, may be found on the SAB Web site at: 
http://www.epa.gov/sab.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of this SAB telephone conference 
meeting is to conduct a final public review and discussion of two draft 
SAB reports. One is Identifying and Calculating Economic Benefit That 
Goes Beyond Avoided and/or Delayed Costs: An SAB Advisory and the other 
is Advisory Review of EPA's Draft Ecological Benefits Assessment 
Strategic Plan; An Advisory by the SAB Committee on Valuing the 
Protection of Ecological Systems and Services. The focus of the meeting 
is to consider whether: (i) The original charge questions to the SAB 
review panel have been adequately addressed in the draft report; (ii) 
the draft report is clear and logical; (iii) the conclusions drawn, or 
recommendations made in the draft report, are supported by the body of 
the report; and (iv) if there are any obvious technical errors, 
omissions, or issues that are inadequately dealt with in the draft 
report.
    1. Illegal Competitive Advantage (ICA) Background Information--
EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) requested 
that the EPA Science Advisory Board review the OECA White Paper 
entitled Identifying and Calculating Economic Benefit that Goes Beyond 
Avoided and/or Delayed Costs, dated May 25, 2003. The White Paper 
addressing ``illegal competitive advantage'' (ICA) issues is related to 
EPA's policy of recapturing violators' economic benefit from 
environmental noncompliance. Most of the Agency's cases involving this 
type of economic benefit focus on the financial gain that arises from 
delayed and/or avoided pollution control costs. In these situations, 
the Agency calculates the economic benefit using the Benefits

[[Page 37100]]

(BEN) computer model. EPA's White Paper provides an approach to capture 
economic benefits from situations that are not covered by the BEN 
model's focus on avoided and/or delayed expenditures. Accordingly, the 
SAB Staff Office formed an Ad Hoc Panel to review the EPA White Paper. 
This was announced in a notice in the Federal Register of August 6, 
2003 (68 FR 46604) in which the SAB Staff Office solicited nominations 
for Panel membership. The Panel held several meetings to discuss and 
draft its advisory as announced in Federal Register notices published 
on June 25, 2004 (69 FR 35599) and January 6, 2005 (70 FR 1244). The 
SAB ICA Quality Review Committee reviewed the draft report resulting 
from the SAB review at its meeting on April 29, 2005 (70 FR 17688). 
These notices can be found on the SAB Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab/panels/icaebapanel.html.
    2. Background on the Advisory Report on EPA's draft Ecological 
Benefits Assessment Strategic Plan. EPA's Office of Policy, Economics 
and Innovation, representing an Agency workgroup charged with drafting 
an Ecological Benefits Assessment Strategic Plan for the Agency, 
requested that the SAB Committee on Valuing the Protection of 
Ecological Systems and Services (C-VPESS) conduct an advisory review of 
the draft plan (draft review document available on the Web at http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/Webpages/SABReview.html). The C-VPESS 
held a public advisory meeting on January, 25, 2005 to be briefed and 
to deliberate on the draft plan and related charge questions and 
approved a consensus draft of the advisory report at a public meeting 
on April 12-13, 2005. Notices of those public meetings were published 
in the Federal Register (70 FR 1244; 70 FR 15085-15086).
    Availability of Review Material for the Board Meeting: The Draft 
reports that are the subject of this meeting are available on the SAB 
Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/sab/panels/icaebapanel.html.
    Procedures for Public Comment: The SAB Staff Office accepts written 
public comments of any length, and accommodates oral public comments 
whenever possible. The SAB Staff Office expects that public statements 
presented at SAB meetings will not repeat previously submitted oral or 
written statements. Oral Comments: In general, each individual or group 
requesting an oral presentation at a teleconference meeting will 
usually be limited to no more than three minutes per speaker, and no 
more than fifteen minutes total. Interested parties should contact the 
DFO noted above in writing via e-mail at least one week prior to the 
meeting to be placed on the public speaker list for the meeting. 
Speakers should provide an electronic copy of their comments to the DFO 
for distribution to interested parties and participants in the meeting. 
Written Comments: Although written comments are accepted until the date 
of the meeting, written comments should be received in the SAB Staff 
Office at least one week prior to the meeting date so that the comments 
may be made available to the committee for their consideration. 
Comments should be supplied to the DFO at the address/contact 
information above in the following formats: one hard copy with original 
signature, and one electronic copy via e-mail (acceptable file format: 
Adobe Acrobat, WordPerfect, Word, or Rich Text files (in IBM-PC/Windows 
98/2000/XP format).

    Dated: June 21, 2005.
Anthony F. Maciorowski,
Acting Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. 05-12710 Filed 6-27-05; 8:45 am]
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