The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is currently seeking input from the public to shape its Beneficiary Mitigation Plan under the Volkswagen Settlement Environmental Mitigation Trust. TDEC has developed a web-based public comment form to allow interested stakeholders to submit comments regarding the State’s utilization of its Environmental Trust allocation. All comments are received by TDEC’s Office of Energy Programs (OEP) for review.

• TDEC has recently revised its web-based Volkswagen Settlement Environmental Mitigation Trust Public Comment Form to include more detail on the various options that will be available to the State within each Eligible Mitigation Action category. Specifically, the revised form provides respondents with the option to utilize checkboxes to specify interest in the various fuel sources (i.e. New Diesel, Alternate Fueled, or All-Electric) that are applicable within each Eligible Mitigation Action category. As was the case with the previous iteration of the form, respondents may also provide additional comments via the comment box or by uploading a document. The revised Public Comment Form may be accessed here.
• Please note that all public comments must be received via the Public Comment Form or directly through email or phone by 11:59 pm Central on January 15, 2018 to be considered for the draft Beneficiary Mitigation Plan. TDEC will review and consider all comments received by this date.

Below is a projected timeline of TDEC’s Beneficiary Mitigation Plan development process. These timeframes are subject to change, and TDEC will update its stakeholders with any alterations as it progresses through the plan development.

• TDEC expects to submit a draftBeneficiary Mitigation Plan to the Governor’s Office for review within the first calendar quarter of 2018.
• TDEC expects to release a proposedBeneficiary Mitigation Plan to the public early in the second calendar quarter of 2018, at which time TDEC will again begin accepting public comment regarding the Plan.
• Following the close of this additional public comment period, TDEC will review and consider all comments received. The Beneficiary Mitigation Plan will then be finalized, submitted to the Trustee, and released to the public. This is expected to occur in the second calendar quarter of 2018, with project solicitation expected to occur in the third calendar quarter of 2018.