Coordinating Group: Meetings & Calls

Coordinating Group Meeting Minutes
March 29, 2000, Salt Lake City, Utah

Members present: Ursula Kramer, Jan Miller, Al Zemsky, Dan Johnson, Dan Olson, John Bunyak (for Chris Shaver), Pete Lahm (for Chris Shaver), Lewis McLeod (for Rose Lee), Bill Auberle, Shawn Kendall, Bobby Ramirez

Others present: Dianne Nielson, Tom Webb, Rich Halvey, Bill Grantham, Pat Cummins, Mike Teague, Sara Laumann

Recorder: Jan Miller. In the absence of Chair Barry Aarons, vice-chair Ursula Kramer chaired the meeting.

MTF update - Ursula Kramer

Ursula gave a summary of the MTF work. The group has several areas of nonconsensus, including the 2018 milestone, BART, 2000 projected actuals. The group has developed agreement on most of the elements of the actual trading program. EPA will be providing their thoughts on the MTF work on April 7 for discussion at the next MTF meeting scheduled for April 12 and 13. The IOC will meet on April 14, immediately after the MTF meetings. That IOC meeting will be used to develop a set of recommendations from the IOC to the WRAP regarding the trading program and what should be taken out for public comment. That package will be ready for mailing on April 24; that means materials need to be in Pat's hands by April 17. The IOC is also developing an economic analysis of the trading program (the work of the MTF) through a contract that will be issued approximately May 1, with a draft report available around June 15 and final report by July 15.

The group agreed that the WRAP packet would be mailed to the forum and committee co-chairs and to the Public Advisory Board in addition to the WRAP members. The packet also will be posted on the Web site.

4. Annex Issues - Pat Cummins

Overall, we need to work out the process for adopting the Annex so that, at the end, the WRAP is focused on the substance, not on adoption process. EPA staff noted they expect to work with the WRAP in an iterative process if necessary to get the package approved by EPA. State Air Directors are meeting in Denver on March 30 in the beginning of a process to ensure they are fully prepared to vote on the Annex at the appropriate time.

When is the best time to deal with the PAB and get them effectively involved in the process? Send them a package in the next few weeks, get them the WRAP packet when it goes out, use the month between the WRAP meeting and the beginning of the Annex public comment period to hold some focused discussions.

Recommendations: involve the PAB in the coordinating group. Send the package to the PAB along with the WRAP; give the PAB option of commenting on the package at the WRAP meeting. Have some discussions with the PAB before the WRAP meeting to coordinate. Also need to get the PAB involved in the Communications Group issues with the MTF; PAB may interested in hosting/facilitating the public meetings.

Action: Agreed to the above recommendations. Pat Cummins will draft a memo to the PAB and will send them the outreach plan prepared by the Communications Committee.

5. Other IOC issues

The IOC is currently short one state member with the resignation of Margie Perkins. Ursula will follow-up on this issue and make a recommendation to the coordinating group quickly (hopefully before the upcoming IOC meeting on April 14).

6. TOC issues

Shawn provided an overview of ongoing TOC work. The TOC is developing a QA/QC plan. Bob Neufeld has been appointed to replace Cathy Reheis as co-chair of the Mobile Sources Forum. Brief status reports will be available for the WRAP packets.

The Coordinating Group approved the appointment of Mike George as an alternate to Nancy Wrona on the TOC.

7. WESTAR/WRAP Coordinating

The Northern Air Managers have designated $50k for development of a model SIP. Tribes will be included in this process, not so much to provide a model TIP as to ensure that tribal issues are considered in the model SIP.

International Projects Committee

Bill Auberle reported that he met with the TOC to follow up on concerns from the winter meeting of the IPC regarding collaboration with the Emissions Inventory Forum to get Mexican border inventory (primarily SOx) into a suitable format for use by WRAP. He noted there is some Mexican interest in fire emissions as well. Bill expects to meet with IOC as well, sometime after their April meeting. The IPC will meet on May 8 in Tempe and will focus on US-Canada border issues to better understand what has been and is being done there. Bill will send in draft language to revise the description of the IPC in the by-laws, to be included next time a change is made in the by-laws.

Communications Committee

Al Zemsky reported that the liaisons to the forums/committees seem to be working fairly well, and asked that Communications be notified if we need changes in assignmetns. Ruth McCormick chairs a subcommittee working with the MTF around outreach for the Annex. The slide show is under revision. The Committee will meet on May 8-9 amd will focus on developing the Speakers Bureau. There is a work plan to revise the Web site as soon as WGA is ready to let the contract to do the work.

Budget

Revisions were made to the budget and Pat will distribute a new version. The total needed through 2001 is about $8 million. Rich Halvey will distribute forms so that stakeholders can document their in-kind contributions so far.

TOC Forum co-chairs understand the budget realities and are working to shift items to later funding years, but they urge that the WRAP be realistic about the cost of doing the work. They also note that building the infrastructure to continue fwork into the future is more expensive than getting one-time answers to questions.

Action. Pat will put together a new budget spreadsheet and distribute. Dianne Nielson will work with Pat, Barry Aarons, Dennis Hemmer, and Dan Olson on a funding strategy for FY01.

NOTE: Federal representatives did not participate in the funding discussion.

Committee/Management Structure

Following the WRAP meeting of September 1999, Dianne Nielson convened a small group to explore changes in the WRAP structure to be more responsive and effective. After an extended discussion of various structural changes, the Coordinating Group generally agreed that;

- the IOC and TOC are working well and should be left alone,

- the Coordinating Group is working well but is not charged with all that needs to be done, and

- we need a structure that encourages strong political leadership from governors and tribal leaders to address policy issues.

Action. Dianne will pull together a proposal for the May WRAP meeting, consulting Bill Auberle, Sam DeLoria, Chris Shaver, Jim Boyd, and Dennis Hemmer.

Agenda for WRAP meeting

- Organizational changes

- Budget

- MTF and Annex

- Outreach Plan for Annex

- Possible discussion of whether WRAP wants to address issues in EPA's latest draft Vision and Goals document.

Action. Forum status reports will be distributed in the packet to the WRAP. Pat Cummins and Bill Grantham will draft agenda and send to Coordinating Group for review, then to Dianne Nielson and Governor Tortalita.