[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 111 (Friday, June 9, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37846-37847]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-12312]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

[Docket Number: USDA-2023-0007]


Notice of Request for Public Comment on 2023 Update to Technical 
Guidelines for Quantifying Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Carbon 
Sequestration at the Entity-Scale for Agriculture and Forestry

AGENCY: Office of the Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

ACTION: Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) invites public 
comment on the 2023 update to Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in 
Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity[hyphen]Scale Inventory, 
Technical Bulletin Number 1939, Office of the Chief Economist, USDA, 
Washington, DC. This report, prepared in part to meet requirements of 
section 2709 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, 
provides methods to quantify entity-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) 
emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors. The updates to 
this report were drafted by more than 60 authors, including USDA 
scientists, university researchers, and experts from non-governmental 
organizations and research institutions. This update adds new methods, 
improves existing methods where appropriate, and enhances the usability 
of the report. Comments received under this notice will be used to 
further refine the update to this report in preparation for publication 
as a USDA Technical Bulletin. Comments submitted will help USDA to 
ensure the new and updated quantification methods reflect the state of 
the science. A series of questions have been provided in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below to aid review. When submitting 
responses, please annotate comments using the report section number 
designations.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
11:59 p.m. Eastern Time July 10, 2023. Comments received after the 
posted deadline may not be considered, regardless of postmark.

ADDRESSES: Comments submitted in response to this notice may be 
submitted online Via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for the

[[Page 37847]]

Docket number USDA-2023-0007. Follow the online instructions for 
submitting comments.
    All comments received will be posted without change and publicly 
available on www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Any questions about this notice should 
be sent to Wes Hanson, Office of Energy and Environmental Policy via 
email: [email protected], or telephone: 202-425-1596.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Energy and Environmental 
Policy (OEEP) operates within the Office of the Chief Economist at USDA 
and functions as the Department-wide focal point on agriculture, rural, 
and forestry-related climate change activities. OEEP ensures that USDA 
is a source of objective, analytical assessments of the effects of 
climate change and proposed response strategies.
    The original 2014 report Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in 
Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity[hyphen]Scale Inventory was 
developed in response to the 2008 Farm Bill, Section 2709, which states 
that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shall prepare 
technical guidelines that outline science-based methods to measure the 
carbon benefits from conservation and land management activities. This 
report provides scientifically rigorous, Department-wide guidelines for 
quantifying GHG emissions and carbon sequestration at the farm-, 
forest-, and entity-scale. The guidelines are intended for use with 
landowners, nongovernmental organizations, and other groups assessing 
increases and decreases in GHG emissions and carbon sequestration 
associated with changes in land management. The report and associated 
materials, including an erratum published in 2019, are available at: 
https://www.usda.gov/oce/climate_change/estimation.htm. The report also 
serves as the foundation for COMET-Farm (http://cometfarm.nrel.colostate.edu), a field-scale tool developed by USDA and 
Colorado State University that provides detailed estimates of the on-
farm benefits accrued from the implementation of conservation 
practices.
    Updates to the technical guidelines are primarily focused on adding 
new quantification methods for management practices that have an 
adequate body of research to support their GHG benefits, revising the 
methods where appropriate to reflect the state of the science, 
improving the accuracy of farm-scale GHG flux estimates, reducing 
ambiguity in how users select a given method, and improving the 
usability of the report by reorganizing the chapters to make the 
methods easier to access.
    USDA currently requests public comment on the following:
    1. Input on the usability, and the level of detail provided for the 
methods, practices, and technologies for quantifying of GHG emissions 
and carbon sequestration at the entity-scale.
    1a. Is the overall flow of the report easy to follow and navigate?
    1b. Is there an appropriate level of detail included for background 
information, and for each method?
    1c. Are the methods easily followed [consider the format of the 
report, language or instructions used, background information provided 
(or not provided), etc.]?
    1d. Are the method descriptions adequate for estimation of 
emissions at the entity scale? If not, list additional details that are 
needed to implement the approaches.
    1e. Are the activity practice data sufficiently described for 
compiling this information from farm and ranch operations?
    1f. Are the graphics provided useful, or are there changes that 
would increase clarity or accuracy?
    1g. Are the data gaps provided complete or are there additional 
promising research that you recommend be included?
    1h. There are some differences in the entity-scale methods compared 
to methods used in the national inventory (often due to the level of 
complexity and availability of entity-level data). Do you have any 
concerns about these differences?
    1i. Is the purpose of the report and its update laid out clearly? 
If not, please provide any suggestions to make this more accessible to 
all audiences.
    1j. Is the definition of an entity clearly defined?
    1k. Are the system boundaries appropriate?
    2. Information to improve the accuracy of the guidelines.
    2a. If you are familiar with the methods provided in the original 
2014 report, feel free to provide comment on the updated methods and 
presentation and whether the updates provide benefits.
    2b. Where provided, are the methods descriptions for estimating 
uncertainty adequate? If not, please elaborate on the missing 
information or need for further details to quantify uncertainty.
    3. Information to improve the usability of the methods.
    3a. Has the reorganization of the report chapters improved the flow 
of the chapters, and the usability of the technical guidelines?
    3b. Are there additional improvements that could be made to improve 
the usability of the technical guidelines?
    3c. What specific changes or improvements could be made to the 
COMET-Farm online tool to improve the implementation of the USDA 
technical guidelines?
    Please provide information including citations and/or contact 
details to the address listed above.

Seth Meyer,
Chief Economist.
[FR Doc. 2023-12312 Filed 6-8-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-GL-P