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Earth
Matters, Inc. is
a woman-owned DBE certified environmental consulting firm specializing
in air quality policy, climate change, planning, and technical services
for regions not attaining air quality health standards. Since its formation
in 1995, Earth Matters has become known for innovation and professionalism
informed by an unusual depth and breadth of knowledge and experience.
Clients
include, or have included, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
state, regional, and local air quality and transportation planning agencies,
the National Academy of Sciences, private industry, and other federal
agencies such as the National Forest Service. Earth Matters has also provided
services to international agencies such as U.S. AID.
On
a recent assignment, founder Kamala Barbara Joy worked with the National
Wildlife Federation for the South Central Office for 15 months assisting
with global warming and wildlife resiliency issues, encouraging environmental
literacy and education, and water issues. Earth Matters also serves as
a subcontractor on projects for the above clients managed by other firms.
Specialty areas include:
Government Sectors
- Tracking
climate change issues and informing clients of potential strategies
to address them
- Emission
inventories for greenhouse gases, ozone precursors and particulate matter
- Interaction
between energy production and electric vehicles
- Mobile
Source Emissions and Control Strategies (MOVEs, EMFAC, I-PLACE3S, INDEX,
URBEMIS, and methodologies developed by B. Joy with EPA funding)
- Transportation/Air
Quality issues
- Transportation
Conformity (strategy, rule interpretation, technical analysis);
- Land use,
transportation and air quality connection;
- Attainment
planning and control strategy development;
- CMAQ applications,
analysis and implementation
- General
conformity;
- Air quality
and emission evaluations and mobile source modeling;
- Innovative
strategies to increase transit, telecommuting, ridesharing, vanpooling,
- Biking/walking
and other alternative modes, and other transportation control strategies);
and
- Cleaner-powered
vehicles
Private Sector
- Title V Permitting Assistance
- Dispersion Modeling (ISC, AERMOD, CALPUFF, OCD, BLP, and CTDMPLUS)
- PSD and non-attainment NSR permitting
- MACT, LAER and BACT control strategy development
- Environmental Impact Reports
- Cap and Trade Programs
General Services
- Proposal and grant applications
- Public
presentations
- Expert witness testimony
- Develop and provide lively presentations and courses for the public, private companies and elected officials
- Project management
- Coalition
building
- Technical writing
Earth Matters
is also experienced with evaluation of climate change policies including cap and trade progams, carbon taxes, and fuel efficiency standards.
Earth
Matters has four technical staff and one support person. |
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Conformity News: March 10, 2010. EPA
Administrator Lisa Jackson signed the final "Transportation Conformity
Rule PM2.5 and PM10 Amendments." The final rule and fact sheet
is at:
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/conf-regs.htm .
There is also a new page on the EPA website with baseline
years for the baseline year test:
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/stateresources/transconf/baseline.htm
China and India endorse Copenhagen
Climate Accord
March 10, 2010. China and India joined
almost all other major greenhouse gas emitters Tuesday in signing up
to the climate accord struck in Copenhagen, boosting a deal strongly
favored by the United States.
More than 100 nations have now endorsed the Copenhagen
Accord, a non-binding agreement reached after two weeks of tortuous
wrangling at the 194-nation summit in December.
Chinese negotiator Su Wei wrote a one-sentence letter
to the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn saying that it could
"proceed to include China in the list."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6283A120100309
EPA Formally Announces Release
of MOVES Model
March 2, 2010. EPA formally announced the
release of the MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator) 2010 in the
Federal Register today, starting a two-year grace period for transportation
conformity determinations. The model itself was released jsut before
Christmas, 2009; the federal register notice triggers a grace period
for conformity determinations on regional transportation plans.
As regional and state transportation planning
agencies know, this means air quality plans (eg SIPs) must be completed
or revised using the MOVEs model or conformity will be difficult or
impossible to show in areas using emission budget tests for regional
emission analyses.
Note that EPA is not approving MOVES2010
for project-level transportation conformity
hot-spot analyses at this time; the Agency will approve the model for
such analyses in the near future via a separate Federal Register notice
when guidance for such analyses is finalized.
The notice itself can be accessed at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-4312.pdf.
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Earth Matters'
vision is to help create and implement
programs that work. We believe a sense of fun, creativity, and pupose
invites stakeholders to approach objectives in fresh ways that can also
be more effective. |
Earth
Matters' founder and president, Kamala. Barbara Joy has
over 24 years of experience in this field and enjoys a national reputation
for technical, policy, outreach and management services. She graduated from
the University of California at Berkeley Summa Cum Laude with a degree in
Environmental Economics in 1985 and joined the renowned firm Systems Applications
International (SAI) in 1985. By 1990 she was a senior manager and scientist
responsible for transportation/air quality programs. In 1995 she formed
Earth Matters which has since gained a considerable reputation as a reliable
and creative source of services in the environmental field. |
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