The Office of Energy Projects will hold the fifth in a series of public meetings for the purpose of exploring and enhancing strategies for constructive public participation in the earliest stages of natural gas facility planning. This seminar will be held on Thursday, July 19, 2001, at the Holiday Inn, 300 Woodbury Avenue, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801, phone number 1-603-431-8000, website www.hiportsmouth.com. The meeting is scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. and finish at 2:45 p.m. This seminar will be a new experience because FERC will present and discuss the draft Outreach Action Options for Industry, Agencies, Citizens, and FERC staff which they have developed based on the first four seminars. The draft Outreach Action Options are a compilation of the ideas, or “tools”, the FERC staff has designed to provide each stakeholder group with practical strategies for reaching consensus and developing win-win solutions.
The staff of the Commission’s Office of Energy projects will give a briefing on the draft plans. Then, participants will be given an opportunity to provide feedback on the plans to help ensure that they address the necessary issues. FERC is inviting interstate natural gas companies; Federal, state and local agencies; landowners and non-governmental organizations to join as they continue to develop new strategies in participatory project design. Interactive breakout sessions will be held with representatives from each stakeholder group to review and comment on the draft Outreach Action Options. Then, each breakout group will have an opportunity to share its results with the overall seminar group in an interactive “brainstorming” session.
The objectives of the seminar are:
- Present and discuss the draft Outreach Action Options;
- Collect constructive comments and make constructive revisions to the plans;
- Explore other ideas for improving the FERC’s environmental review process.
If you plan to attend, please email gasoutreach@ferc.fed.us by July 6, 2001. Or, you can respond via facsimile to Pennie Lewis-Partee at 202-208-0353. Please include in the response the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all attendees from your organization. FERC will send an acknowledgment of your request. The draft Outreach Action Options will be posted on the FERC website www.ferc.gov and will be mailed to all past seminar participants and to all registrants for this seminar. Interested persons will then have an opportunity to review the draft Outreach Action Options and offer comments. Comments should be sent via e-mail to: gasoutreach-feedback@ferc.fed.us@ferc.fed.us and should be sent by August 3, 2001.
If you have any questions, you may contact any of the staff listed below:
Richard Hoffmann 202/208-0066
Lauren O’Donnell 202/208-0325
Jeff Shenot 202/219-2178
Howard Wheeler 202/208-2299