4744 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 16 / Tuesday, January 27, 2009 / Notices 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Executive 

Summary [excerpted from the 2009 

Annual Plan p. 3]. 

This document is the 2009 Annual 

Plan for the Ultra-Deepwater and 

Unconventional Natural Gas and Other 

Petroleum Resources Research and 

Development Program established 

pursuant to Title IX, Subtitle J (Subtitle 

J) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 

(EPAct). Subtitle J is reproduced in 

Appendix A to the 2009 Annual Plan. 

As required by Subtitle J, the 

Department of Energy (DOE) contracted 

with a consortium (Program 

Consortium) to administer three 

program elements identified in EPAct: 

Ultra-deepwater architecture and 

technology, unconventional natural gas 

and other petroleum resources 

exploration and production technology, 

and technology challenges of small 

producers. 

A fourth program element of 

complementary research identified in 

EPAct is being performed by the 

National Energy Technology Laboratory 

(NETL). NETL is also tasked with 

management of the consortium contract, 

and review and oversight of the Program 

Consortium. 

In 2006, NETL awarded a contract to 

the Research Partnership to Secure 

Energy for America (RPSEA) to function 

as the Program Consortium. 

The 2007 Annual Plan, the first 

annual plan, resulted in a total of 15 

solicitations from which 43 projects 

were selected. 

In August 2008, the 2008 Annual Plan 

was transmitted to Congress and 

published in the Federal Register. 

Implementation will include a total of 

13 solicitations that are expected to be 

issued by the Program Consortium in 

late fall/early winter 2008, with 

selections anticipated in early 2009. 

As further required by Subtitle J, in 

September 2008, two Federal advisory 

committees, the Ultra-Deepwater 

Advisory Committee and the 

Unconventional Resources Technology 

Advisory Committee, began their 

respective reviews of the draft 2009 

Annual Plan. In October 2008, the two 

advisory committees provided their 

recommendations. 

Section 999B(e)(3) of EPAct requires 

DOE to publish all written comments on 

the annual plan. Accordingly, the 

Program Consortium’s final 2009 draft 

Annual Plan is included here as 

Appendix B and the comments and 

recommendations provided by the 

advisory committees are included here 

as Appendix C. No other written 

comments were received. 

The 2009 Annual Plan provides a 

comprehensive outline of the Program 

Consortium’s research activities 

planned for 2009. The primary focus of 

these activities is to fill in any 

technology gaps not addressed by the 

projects and solicitations to date. A 

highlight of this year’s plan is the 

attention that will be given to 

technology transfer. 

Technology transfer is an important 

focus of the program. Section 999C(d) of 

EPAct requires 2.5% of the amount of 

each award to be designated for 

technology transfer activities. The 

Federal advisory committees 

recommended that more information on 

technology transfer be included in 

future annual plans. In response, the 

2009 Annual Plan includes the structure 

for the overall technology transfer 

program. 

Section 999 H(a) of EPAct provides 

that the Ultra-Deepwater and 

Unconventional Natural Gas and Other 

Petroleum Research Fund be funded at 

$50-million-per-year, with funds 

generated from Federal lease royalties, 

rents, and bonuses paid by oil and gas 

companies. Seventy-five percent of 

these funds are obligated to the Program 

Consortium’s contract to execute three 

program elements. After allocations for 

program management by NETL and 

program administration by the Program 

Consortium, the amount to be invested 

in research activities by the Program 

Consortium totals $31.88 million per 

year. 

Under the Stage/Gate approach 

applied to prior year activities, all 

Program Consortium administered 

projects will be fully funded to the 

completion of the appropriate decision 

point identified in each contract, which 

may include multiple stages. If a 

decision is made to move to the next 

stage or decision point or to gather 

additional data, additional funding will 

be provided from available funds. 

The NETL Strategic Center for Natural 

Gas and Oil is responsible for 

management of the consortium contract, 

and review and oversight of the Program 

Consortium. Complementary R&D is 

being carried out by NETL’s Office of 

Research and Development. Planning 

and analysis related to the program, 

including benefits assessment and 

technology impacts analysis, is being 

carried out by NETL’s Office of Systems, 

Analysis, and Planning. 

Section 999F of EPAct contains a 

general sunset provision for Title IX, 

Subtitle J, of September 30, 2014. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on January 9, 

2009. 

Guido DeHoratiis, 

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of 

Oil and Natural Gas, Office of Fossil Energy. 

[FR Doc. E9–1689 Filed 1–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–ORD–2008–0926; FRL–8767–8] 

Board of Scientific Counselors, 

Science and Technology for 

Sustainability Mid-Cycle Subcommittee 

Meetings—Winter 2009 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Federal 

Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 

92–463, the Environmental Protection 

Agency, Office of Research and 

Development (ORD), gives notice of a 

meeting of the Board of Scientific 

Counselors (BOSC) Science and 

Technology for Sustainability 

Subcommittee. 

DATES: The first meeting (teleconference 

call) will be held on Thursday, February 

12, 2009, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern 

Standard Time (EST). The second 

meeting (face-to-face) will be held on 

Thursday, March 12, 2009, from 9 a.m. 

to 4 p.m. EST. Meetings may adjourn 

early if all business is finished. Requests 

for the draft agenda or for making oral 

presentations at the meetings will be 

accepted up to one business day before 

the meeting. 

ADDRESSES: Participation in the 

conference call will be by 

teleconference only—meeting rooms 

will not be used. Members of the public 

may obtain the call-in number and 

access code for the call from Greg 

Susanke, whose contact information is 

listed under the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

notice. The face-to-face meeting will be 

held at the EPA Building—One Potomac 

Yard, 2777 S. Crystal Drive, Arlington, 

Virginia, 22202. The meeting is in the 

Fourth Floor Conference Center North, 

room N–4830. Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

ORD–2008–0926, by one of the 

following methods: 

• http://www.regulations.gov: Follow 

the on-line instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• E-mail: Send comments by 

electronic mail (e-mail) to: 

ORD.Docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket 

ID No. EPA–HQ–ORD–2008–0926. 

mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES6

Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 16 / Tuesday, January 27, 2009 / Notices 4745 

• Fax: Fax comments to: (202) 566– 

0224, Attention Docket ID No. EPA– 

HQ–ORD–2008–0926. 

• Mail: Send comments by mail to: 

Board of Scientific Counselors, Science 

and Technology for Sustainability MidCycle Subcommittee Meetings—Winter 

2009 Docket, Mailcode: 28221T, 1200 

Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, 

DC, 20460, Attention Docket ID No. 

EPA–HQ–ORD–2008–0926. 

• Hand Delivery or Courier. Deliver 

comments to: EPA Docket Center (EPA/ 

DC), Room B102, EPA West Building, 

1301 Constitution Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC, Attention Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–ORD–2008–0926. Note: 

this is not a mailing address. Such 

deliveries are only accepted during the 

docket’s normal hours of operation, and 

special arrangements should be made 

for deliveries of boxed information. 

Instructions: Direct your comments to 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–ORD–2008– 

0926. EPA’s policy is that all comments 

received will be included in the public 

docket without change and may be 

made available online at http:// 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided, unless 

the comment includes information 

claimed to be Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Do not submit information that you 

consider to be CBI or otherwise 

protected through http:// 

www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The 

http://www.regulations.gov Web site is 

an ‘‘anonymous access’’ system, which 

means EPA will not know your identity 

or contact information unless you 

provide it in the body of your comment. 

If you send an e-mail comment directly 

to EPA without going through http:// 

www.regulations.gov, your e-mail 

address will be automatically captured 

and included as part of the comment 

that is placed in the public docket and 

made available on the Internet. If you 

submit an electronic comment, EPA 

recommends that you include your 

name and other contact information in 

the body of your comment and with any 

disk or CD–ROM you submit. If EPA 

cannot read your comment due to 

technical difficulties and cannot contact 

you for clarification, EPA may not be 

able to consider your comment. 

Electronic files should avoid the use of 

special characters, any form of 

encryption, and be free of any defects or 

viruses. For additional information 

about EPA’s public docket visit the EPA 

Docket Center homepage at http:// 

www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm. 

Docket: All documents in the docket 

are listed in the http:// 

www.regulations.gov index. Although 

listed in the index, some information is 

not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other 

information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Certain other 

material, such as copyrighted material, 

will be publicly available only in hard 

copy. Publicly available docket 

materials are available either 

electronically in http:// 

www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at 

the Board of Scientific Counselors, 

Science and Technology for 

Sustainability Mid-Cycle Subcommittee 

Meetings—Winter 2009 Docket, EPA/ 

DC, EPA West, Room B102, 1301 

Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, 

DC. The Public Reading Room is open 

from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday 

through Friday, excluding legal 

holidays. The telephone number for the 

Public Reading Room is (202) 566–1744, 

and the telephone number for the ORD 

Docket is (202) 566–1752. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The 

Designated Federal Officer via mail at: 

Greg Susanke, Mail Drop 8104–R, Office 

of Science Policy, Office of Research 

and Development, Environmental 

Protection Agency, 1300 Pennsylvania 

Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; via 

phone/voice mail at: (202) 564–9945; 

via fax at: (202) 565–2911; or via e-mail 

at: susanke.greg@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

General Information 

The meetings are open to the public. 

Any member of the public interested in 

receiving a draft BOSC agenda or 

making a presentation at the meeting 

may contact Greg Susanke, the 

Designated Federal Officer, via any of 

the contact methods listed in the FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section 

above. In general, each individual 

making an oral presentation will be 

limited to a total of three minutes. 

EPA ORD is conducting an 

independent expert review through the 

BOSC, to evaluate the progress made by 

the Science and Technology for 

Sustainability Research Program 

towards addressing the 

recommendations that resulted from its 

initial program review in April 2007; 

and to evaluate and obtain advice on 

key future directions for the research 

program which have been developed 

and other potential areas that could be 

considered. Proposed agenda items for 

the meetings include, but are not 

limited to: Teleconference: objectives of 

the review; an overview of ORD’s 

Science and Technology for 

Sustainability Research Program; a 

summary of major changes in the 

research program since 2007; Face-toface meeting: ORD progress in response 

to recommendations from the previous 

BOSC program review and other 

activities; subcommittee discussions. 

Information on Services for 

Individuals with Disabilities: For 

information on access or services for 

individuals with disabilities, please 

contact Greg Susanke at (202) 564–9945 

or susanke.greg@epa.gov. To request 

accommodation of a disability, please 

contact Greg Susanke, preferably at least 

10 days prior to the meeting, to give 

EPA as much time as possible to process 

your request. 

Dated: January 15, 2009. 

Fred Hauchman, 

Director, Office of Science Policy. 

[FR Doc. E9–1701 Filed 1–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL–8768–4] 

EPA Office of Children’s Health 

Protection and Environmental 

Education Staff Office; Notice of Public 

Meetings for the National 

Environmental Education Advisory 

Council 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency. 

ACTION: Notice of meetings. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) 

Office of Children’s Health Protection 

and Environmental Education Office 

hereby gives notice that the National 

Environmental Education Advisory 

Council will hold public meetings by 

conference call on the 2nd Wednesday 

of each month, beginning with February 

11, 2009 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. All 

times noted are eastern time. The 

purpose of these meetings is to provide 

the Council with the opportunity to 

advise the Environmental Education 

Division on its implementation of the 

National Environmental Protection Act 

of 1990. Requests for the draft agenda 

will be accepted up to 1 business day 

before the meeting. 

DATES: This notice is applicable for the 

following dates: 

• February 11, 2009. 

• March 11, 2009. 

• April 8, 2009. 

• May 13, 2009. 

• June 10, 2009. 

• July 8, 2009. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Participation in the conference calls will 

be by teleconference only—meeting 

rooms will not be used. Members of the 

public may obtain the call-in number 

mstockstill on PROD1PC66 with NOTICES6