Written or oral discussions, or site visits, may be conducted with

any or all of the offerors. Offerors will be notified of the date,

time, and place for any oral discussions or site visits.

Except for proposals that are withdrawn in accordance with SECTION

III.34, "Late Submissons, Modifications, and withdrawals of Proposals,"

Drawings, specifications, and other documents supplied by DOE with

the PON may be retained by the offeror, except for documents that

are required to be completed and returned as a part of the pr

26.

PREVIOUS RESPONDENTS TO THE EARLIER "CLEAN COAL" PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT

Prospective Offerors are advised that this PON is not an extension

or duplication of the November 1984 "Program Announcement for

Information Regarding Emerging Clean Coal Technologies," also known

as the "Section 321" announcement. Proposals submitted in response

to the earlier announcement will not be evaluated or considered in

any way with regard to this PON. Prospective offerors are hereby

instructed that they must submit a new proposal if they wish to be

considered for financial assistance.

27.

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (NEPA) STRATEGY

An overall strategy for compliance with the National Environmental

Policy Act (NEPA) has been developed for the Clean Coal Technology

Program, consistent with the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1500-1508) and the DOE guidelines for compliance with NEPA (45 Fed. Reg. 20, 694 (1980)). This strategy

includes both programmatic and project-specific environmental impact

considerations, during and subsequent to the selection process, However, in light of the extremely tight schedule imposed by the Clean Coal Technology legislation (Pub. L. No. 99-190), some modifi

cation will be necessary to the normally applicable documenta

tion and public review requirements. Moreover, the confidentiality requirements of the competitive PON process place certain restrictions

on the NEPA review.

Therefore, DOE proposes to follow alternative procedures to ensure

that environmental factors are fully evaluated and integrated into

the decision making process to satisfy its NEPA responsibilities.

Offerors shall submit both programmatic and project-specific environ

mental data and analyses as a discrete part of their proposal. DOE

will independently evaluate the environmental data and analyses

submitted by offerors, to the maximum extent possible, and will

develop supplemental information as necessary for reasoned decision

making. The major elements of this NEPA strategy are discussed

1

the projected changes to environmental emissions in the U.S. and

regionally within the U.S. if each technology proposed were to meet

its anticipated U.S. market potential. The projected environmental

impacts of anticipated commercialization of the candidate technolo

gies will be discussed. Such discussion will address, in qualitative terms, unresolved environmental issues, identify areas where important

environmental information is incomplete or unavailable, and evaluate

tradeoffs between short-term and long-term effects, to the maximum

extent possible.

To enable DOE to perform this analysis, offerors shall complete and

submit with their proposal, as part of Volume III, Business and

Management Proposal, the forms provided in Appendix K, "Summary

Environmental Data for the Commercialized Technology," using that

information deemed to best characterize the commercial version of

the clean coal technology being proposed.

27.2

Pre-Selection Project-Specific Environmental Review:

For proposals that meet the qualification criteria, DOE will

prepare and consider before the selection of proposals an environ

mental impact analysis which will focus on environmental issues

pertinent to decision making. Such analysis will summarize

the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal against the environ

mental evaluation criteria including, to the maximum extent possible,

a discussion of alternative sites and/or processes reasonably avail

able to the offeror; a brief discussion of the environmental impacts

of each proposal; practicable mitigating measures; and, to the

extent known, a list of permits which must be obtained in imple

!

This environmental impact analysis will be provided to the Source

reasonable alternatives have been evaluated in the selection process.

This selection statement will be filed with the Environmental

Protection Agency, in accordance with the DOE NEPA guidelines.