Public Comment Period: Technical Guidelines for GHG Emissions and Carbon Sequestration

The USDA Office of Energy and Environmental Policy has released a Notice of Request for Public Comment on Updates to Technical Guidelines for Quantifying Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Carbon Sequestration at the Entity-Scale for Agriculture and Forestry.

Details and instructions to submit comments are available here.

An excerpt from this request for input is cross-posted below, for your information.

USDA is currently seeking input from the public to ensure that relevant information and data are considered, improve the rigor of the guidelines, and enhance the usability of the methods in the updated technical guidelines. USDA is interested in your comments in response to the following:

1. Information on methods, practices, and technologies for quantification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration at the entity-scale for agriculture.

1a. Information on methods, practices, and technologies currently included in the report, including new information on emission factors and default values. Please indicate the relevant chapter and page number(s) of the technical guidelines.

1b. Information on practices and technologies currently not included in the report. Are there additional practices and technologies for which the science and data are clear, and which should be addressed in the technical guidelines? Are estimation methods available for these technologies and practices? Please provide details.

1c. Information on promising technologies and practices for greenhouse gas mitigation and/or quantification which may become viable in the future.

2. Information to improve the rigor of the guidelines.

2a. Are there datasets that could be used to test and validate current and future methods?

2b. Are there findings that could reduce the uncertainty of current and future methods?

3. Information to improve the usability of the methods.

3a. How can USDA improve the usability of the technical guidelines for its customers?

3b. What specific changes or improvements could be made to the COMET-Farm online tool to improve the implementation of the USDA technical guidelines?