Subcommittee on Environment and Energy | MINUTES

Meeting date & time August 6-7, 2015 

Meeting location EDF, Washington D.C.

Purpose E&E Subcommittee Guidance & 

Review 

Facilitator Jim Hileman, DFO

Note taker Jim Hileman 

Timekeeper Jim Hileman

Minutes from Meeting

Presentation Chair Opening Statements | Presenter Mahendra Joshi

Discussion: Mahendra welcomed everyone and established the meeting logistics. 

Presentation What’s New in AEE | Presenter Lourdes Maurice

Discussion: Lourdes discussed staffing within the office. Don Scata is now the Senior 

International Advisor for AEE. We have done fairly well in terms of recruiting and bringing 

people onboard. We have new hires and/or seeking people for all of our divisions. The primary 

focus of the office has been noise. We have been having many challenges throughout the 

country. With these challenges, we also have many new efforts that have started. As far as FAA 

goes, reauthorization is in people’s minds as it expires September 30. There are other 

government-wide issues that are also coming at the end of the calendar year. We are a year out 

from the election and we are finding much political interest in noise and climate. 

Presentation ICAO Update | Presenter Lourdes Maurice

Discussion: We have many things ongoing in ICAO. There are two main issues of interest to the 

REDAC: the CO2 standard and global Market Based Measure. 

We have been working on CO2 standard since it was first brought up in 2008. We expect that 

CAEP will make a decision on the CO2 standard in February 2016. R&D has been instrumental 

in making this happen. We are getting close to the answer but there are challenges remaining. 

We need to ensure that the stringency does provide benefit. We are seeking a standard that would 

apply to anything from a small Cessna to a large Airbus A380. We had a good Steering Group 

meeting. We have set up a process wherein the manufacturing states will be able to have a series 

of discussions to bridge our differences. We hope to have all of the elements in place to have an 

agreement in February 2016. With their endangerment finding, EPA have started the work to 

implement the standard at some point on or after 2020. 

We have also been working on an offset system to achieve carbon neutral growth post 2020. We 

have been working to examine how to allocate obligations to different types of airlines. There are 
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various concepts being analyzed to facilitate this. We are also working on the Monitoring, 

Reporting and Verification (MRV) process. The COP meeting in Paris in December is 

influencing the discussions and there will likely be more movement after its completion. We see 

the global market based measure as being a gap filler and that technology, operations and 

alternative jet fuels are the primary means of addressing aviation CO2 emissions.

We continue to work on a PM standard. This has involved both the development of a 

measurement methodology and assembling the data from the measurements.

We have a new Secretary General of ICAO, who is from China.

The role of ICAO with regards to alternative fuels is to share best practices. More recently ICAO 

CAEP has been working on how to include alternative jet fuels within the GMBM. The group 

spent some time debating on whether or not to do the task but has more recently made progress. 

With the recent Steering Group meeting, the alternative fuels group will be examining 

sustainability. The group will first examine the scope of the sustainability aspects and then to 

conduct the work during the next CAEP cycle. The group is being rather conservative in their 

assessment of the carbon footprint of the fuels. 

One Subcommittee member noted that it would be good for AEE to reach out to Tom Carpenter 

who is the DFO for the EPA’s science board and see where things stand with the assessment of 

biogenic carbon.

Presentation Industry Perspective | Presenter Steve Alterman

Discussion: Noise is clearly the primary local issue politically. FAA needs to either be 

reauthorized later this year or to have an extension. Nothing will happen though before 

September 30. The industry is split on how to move forward on this. People are talking about 

restructuring the agency and not just reauthorizing. One way of doing this is to remove ATO and 

make it an independent entity that has stable funding and a board of directors. This is very 

similar to NavCanada. Such a change would have implications to safety and environment. There 

are several ideas regarding noise being considered for inclusion in reauthorization.

Presentation Budget Update | Presenter Mike Gallivan

Discussion: Mike presented budget details on budget for FY16. There are mark ups from the 

House and Senate Subcommittee for the FAA budget. There is a new BLI for commercial space 

for commercial space in FY16 that was actually started in FY15. 

The House and Senate moved funds around within the FY16 budgets and provided plus-ups to 

Unmanned Aerial Systems, Alternative Fuels for General Aviation, and Environment and Energy 

programs. 

Mike presented the language from the House and Senate appropriation subcommittees from 

FY15 and FY16. There was positive language in these for Environment and Energy. There was 

also discussion around the positive language that was provided for the Environment and Energy 

programs in previous years. 

The RE&D budget targets for FY17 through FY21 were presented as was the timeline for the

development of the FY17 budget.
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Presentation Responses to REDAC Recommendations & Actions | Presenter Jim 

Hileman

Discussion: Jim walked through the existing findings and recommendations from the past two 

meetings (August 2014 and March 2015). All of the recommendations were left open. Jim also 

walked through the action items from previous meetings. Those that are still open are copied 

below.

Action items (from previous meetings) Person responsible Deadline

Present historical data on noise exposure – go back at 

least 10-15 years

Rebecca Cointin March 2016

Create ASCENT fact sheet for sharing with community Jim Hileman March 2016

Leverage the roadmapping efforts at NASA and FAA to 

update the White House National R&D Plan

Jim Hileman March 2016

Presentation AEE Research Update | Presenter Jim Hileman

Discussion: Jim gave an overview of the Environment and Energy Research to refresh the 

Subcommittee on the research objectives. He also presented on the historical budget levels as 

well as the FY15 enacted budget, the FY16 Presidential budget, and the FY17 target. The budget 

section gave a breakout of the funding by research topic. 

Jim walked the Subcommittee through handouts that present the FAA Environment and Energy 

Strategy and what is being done with regards to the environment. The Subcommittee was very 

supportive of the handouts and requested that these be distributed broadly. One member noted 

that it would be good to note that CLEEN and ASCENT are both cost-sharing programs. Jim 

requested that the Subcommittee provide feedback on the brochures to AEE.

Jim summarized the briefing by stating that noise, emissions and the need for a sustainable and 

secure energy supply remain critical issues facing the growth of aviation. He further noted that 

reduced funding limits our ability to develop solutions that could prevent environment from 

being a constraint on aviation growth.

There was much discussion about what was cut to meet the current budget levels and how AEE 

is leveraging the budget and efforts from other organizations. The Subcommittee discussed 

issues surrounding the decrease in F&E funding and how it is presenting challenges to the 

successful rollout of NextGen.

The Subcommittee requested that the FAA continue to work with EPA to increase their 

participation either at the meeting or via the phone.

Action items (from previous meetings) Person responsible Deadline

Provide feedback on brochures to AEE Subcommittee 

Members

August 2015

Distribute brochures broadly Jim Hileman March 2016

Seek EPA participation at future meetings Jim Hileman March 2016
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Presentation Aircraft Tech – CLEEN Update and CLEEN II Status | 

Presenter Levent Ileri

Discussion – Levent presented an update of progress in maturing technologies within the 

CLEEN program. He discussed the status of the CLEEN II Program. 

There was a question regarding the cost of the technologies and the CO2 benefit and how the 

efforts of CLEEN would compare to other measures for mitigating CO2 emissions. It was noted 

that this would be difficult as such a calculation would require the estimation of full costs of the 

technology and the FAA only knows the R&D expenditures. The FAA will present the CLEEN 

technology assessment effort and the R&D costs at the next meeting. 

The technologies under CLEEN are important to industry as they span a critical TRL gap. 

However, there is additional infrastructure that has to be quantified to get the costs as FAA 

efforts stop at TRL 7. 

Action items Person responsible Deadline

Provide fuel burn and CO2 benefits of CLEEN 

technologies as well as the R&D costs that have been 

expended by the FAA. Seek input from industry on the 

full costs of these new technologies.

Levent Ileri March 2016 

Presentation Emissions Research - Roadmap and Update | Presenter Ralph 

Iovinelli

Discussion: Ralph presented on efforts to relating to the emissions research roadmap. He walked 

through areas of research in AEE. He presented on FY15 research efforts and plans for FY16/17. 

He presented the draft emissions research roadmap with timelines for the research that we are 

currently considering. There was a discussion around the direction of the climate research and 

Ralph noted that AEE need to think about where to take our climate research in the future. There 

was also clarification provided on the time period over which guidance is updated. 

Presentation CO2 Standard Progress and Plans | Presenter Ralph Iovinelli

Discussion: Ralph presented a timeline presenting the progression of the CO2 standard 

development. He also presented what are the next steps that need to be addressed up to the 

CAEP/10 meeting in February 2016 as well as the efforts that will follow to ensure 

implementation. Ralph discussed the proposed endangerment finding from the EPA. A 

Subcommittee member noted that the proposed endangerment finding should go through the 

EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) and he did not know if it had. The EPA member on the 

phone noted that the EPA SAB is a different office from the one that he represents and he did not 

know the answer. 

Action items Person responsible Deadline

In regards to expanded delegation / certification 

authority, confirm the ICAO Annex 16 and ETM 

Ralph Iovinelli March 2016 
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Action items Person responsible Deadline

language for CO2 standard will permit this.

Presentation Noise Research – Roadmap and Update | Presenter Rebecca Cointin

Discussion: Becky presented research being done within the noise research roadmap and 

progress that has occurred in the national noise survey. 

A member asked how an acceleration of the noise research work would reduce the pressure that 

is coming from communities. A long discussion ensued. In summary, the noise research roadmap 

is focused on understanding impacts and this is a relatively small part of the overall picture. We 

also need to have procedures to address any issues that are present. Of course, having these 

procedures also requires appropriate equipage in the aircraft. There was a discussion that ensued 

about whether the Subcommittee should have a recommendation to prioritize the development of 

ATM and/or operational concepts that will mitigate the noise impacts from PBN implementation.

The Subcommittee noted their support for leveraging existing health cohorts to examine the 

health impacts of noise. A member mentioned that recent developments in sensor technology 

could prove useful in reducing the expense of conducting the sleep study. 

Discussion (no briefing) ATO Mission Support Services Community Involvement 

Program (ATO-AEE coordination) 

Discussion: Chris Sequeira (ATO) discussed the ATO Missions Support Services Community 

Involvement Program. Within this, FAA have developed a community involvement plan to 

improve the communication with communications about changes to procedures. A part of the 

overall effort is to capture lessons learned from past PBN implementation efforts. The initial 

focus of the effort is project-specific. There is not a lot to talk about at this point as this effort is 

just starting. The first step is to get a draft of the plan together and then it would be 

communicated with external stakeholders. 

FAA AEE are also updating the community involvement manual. ATO are a part of this effort. 

Presentation Operations Research - Roadmap and Update | Presenter Chris 

Dorbian

Discussion: Chris presented the operations research roadmap with a focus on ongoing efforts and 

our plans for FY15 through FY17 if funding were not an issue. He presented plans and results 

from AEE efforts on Cruise Altitude and Speed Optimization, Delayed Deceleration 

Approaches, Surface Congestion Management, and Continuous Climb Operations. He also 

discussed plans to examine UAS in FY15 as well as to stand up new work to explore steeper 

approaches. 
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Presentation Alternative Jet Fuels R&D Update | Presenter Nate Brown & Mohan 

Gupta

Discussion: Nate gave an update on testing efforts to support ASTM approval of alternative jet 

fuels. He started by explaining the ASTM process and then outlining where various fuels are in 

terms of the approval process. Mohan followed this with results that are being produced by the 

National Jet Fuel Combustion Program as well as plans for the future direction of the program. 

Nate then gave a brief update on the direction of the ASCENT alternative jet fuel supply chain 

project. Nate finished the briefing by explaining recent coordination efforts regarding alternative 

jet fuels and he showed the large number of industry announcements regarding alternative jet 

fuels. 

Action items Person responsible Deadline

Seek information from EPA on the work of the Science 

Advisory Board to account for biogenic carbon 

emissions from stationary sources as the feedstocks are 

the same regardless of end use, (i.e., bio-heat, bio-fuel, 

bio-electricity).

Jim Hileman March 2016

Presentation Modeling & Tools Update | Presenter Jim Hileman

Discussion: Jim presented the broad outlines of the tools and analysis roadmap as well as efforts 

to develop analytical capabilities within AEE. He walked through efforts that will build on the 

release of the AEDT2b (which occurred on May 29, 2015). These include a number of ASCENT

and ACRP projects as well as efforts being done by the AEDT development team of Volpe, 

Metron and ATAC. Jim also presented on several ASCENT projects that are examining rapid 

fleet-wide modeling, aircraft technology, alternative jet fuels and operations in a manner that will 

be integrated in the future.

Action items Person responsible Deadline

Provide details on the Tools and Analysis Roadmap Jim Hileman March 2016

Presentation Overview of NASA Aeronautics | Presenter Jay Dryer

Discussion: Jay gave an update on NASA Aeronautics efforts. He started with the six strategic 

thrusts that define NASA Aeronautics and how they relate to the Programs that comprise NASA 

Aeronautics. He gave an update on the FY16 budget as well as plans for how these funds would

be used. He highlighted efforts within the Environmentally Responsible Aviation project and the 

efforts on supersonic flight.

Lead-in to Breakout Discussions | Lead Mahendra Joshi

The Subcommittee divided into two subgroups that discussed the questions (listed below) that 

Jim presented during his overview briefing on Day 1:

1. Are there R&D areas within the E&E Portfolio that should be lower / higher priority?
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2. Are there R&D areas that AEE is not examining that should be added to the E&E 

Portfolio?

3. What do you see coming on the horizon regarding E&E that may require future R&D 

efforts? 

The report outs from the two subgroups are presented below.

Subgroup 1 - Summary of Breakout Discussions | Lead Jay Dryer

1. Are there R&D areas within the E&E Portfolio that should be lower / higher priority?

So many projects with limited funding. Hard to have clear insight into each area to evaluate 

whether funding is adequate. No obvious changes needed to the balance, but it appears that all 

could benefit from increased budgets (especially in light of recent reductions). Given the resource 

level the portfolio is sound. We appreciate the ability to continue to evaluate the portfolio and feel 

the FAA has been transparent with the content. We are satisfied with changes we have seen from 

the AEE team (e.g. changing levels of tool funding). 

Many areas of the portfolio are moving along well: e.g. PM, CO2, CLEEN/ CLEEN II, noise and 

tools. ASCENT has also been a success and good transition from PARTNER. 

Good example of coordinating with other areas of the FAA (e.g. Airports support for noise 

surveys). It would be useful to have other FAA “sponsors” brief the committee on these activities. 

Environmental concerns (especially noise) and failure to engage the community and airports are 

causing problems with the implementation of new operational procedures but overall the FAA is 

reducing funding to solve this problem. ATO, ANG, AEE, and ARP need to work together to 

develop solutions to facilitate the implementation of PBN or other operational procedures. 

Operational funding has essentially disappeared in this area, which is a concern because there are 

no FY16+ F&E funded projects. 

Need to pay close attention to potential needs tied to results/ lessons learned from the noise survey 

because of the priority and sensitive nature.

2020 carbon neutral growth is important – ensure there is more focus on solution than fundamental 

science. This balance may be fine now especially considering that the FAA has the opportunity to 

leverage other foundational data (e.g. ACCESS 2) without having to pay to collect these data.

Need to be careful where we draw the line on FAA’s role on health impact research. 

2. Are there R&D areas that AEE is not examining that should be added to the E&E Portfolio?

UAS noise is going to be a growing issue. We acknowledge that there is a small aspect of UAS noise 

research in the portfolio. Noise mechanisms and characteristics are different for smaller vehicles so 

tools and prediction methods may need to be re-evaluated. This is a growing area of public 

attention and may require quick reaction if UAS operations become more prevalent. It is clear that 

the FAA is starting to respond to the UAS need (increased budget) but not clear that any of these 

resources are being directed to understand and mitigate the potential environmental concerns. 
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Work needs to continue to understand how to ensure data analyses of large sets (“Big Data”) can 

guide clear policy recommendations. Could we pull in other expertise into COE work?

Sustainability of alternative fuels is a growing issue of concern. The focus is on environmental 

aspects. 

Look at a deliberate process to help inform future calls for efforts such as CLEEN. For example, 

engage in a deliberate RFI process to engage the community (including industry and other 

government). 

Operations related funding is needed to ensure that AEE operations research projects (e.g. PBN or 

DDA related) can continue that are important (see similar comment in 1 above). 

3. What do you see coming on the horizon regarding E&E that may require future R&D efforts? 

(strategic input for 2018 and beyond program)

Many items being worked (e.g. noise) will continue to be evolving issues. 

Ensure FAA remains engaged with the community to ensure priorities.

There will be increased opportunities leverage data generated from private entities and other 

countries. FAA needs to be in a position to do so. 

Open area is climate effects of PM – currently not well understood. This may require additional 

investigation in the future but it is not higher priority than current portfolio. This could be true in 

other areas (e.g. contrail formation) where others may be leading the US in research. We need to 

have a position if we want to just let them lead or have a strong US position on the topic. 

May be long term but supersonic transport, commercial space and/or hypersonic point to point may 

become an issue with regard to emissions in the stratosphere and noise.

Need to incorporate data driven guidance into operational decisions and tools. 

Subgroup 2 - Summary of Breakout Discussions | Lead Jennifer Duke
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Meeting Close-Out | Lead Mahendra Joshi

Mahendra agreed to create a draft of the Findings and Recommendations, circulate it, and then 

that will go to the main REDAC. 

Subcommittee Discussion of Open Recommendations (Discuss status of FAA response and 

decide to close or remain open)
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All of the recommendations from the August 2014 and March 2015 meetings remain open.

Next Meeting – Date/Location/Agenda Items to be Included

March 2-3 in Washington DC

Adjourned at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Attendance and meeting agenda are captured in the attached documents