SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- The Economic and Environmental Impacts from Increased use of Renewable Fuels
- Notice Date
- 12/28/2010
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541614
— Process, Physical Distribution, and Logistics Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- CPODUS Environmental Protection AgencyCincinnati Procurement OperationsDivision26 West Martin Luther King DriveCincinnatiOH45268USA
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- SOL-CI-11-00009
- Response Due
- 1/13/2011
- Archive Date
- 2/12/2011
- Point of Contact
- Samantha Fuchs
- E-Mail Address
-
Fuchs.Samantha@epa.gov
(Fuchs.Samantha@epamail.epa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Synopsis:The Economic and Environmental Impacts from Increased use of Renewable Fuels in the US Transportation Sector The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ), Office Acquisition Management (OAM) Cincinnati Procurement Operations Division (CPOD), intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, The Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University, Ames, IA. The applicable NAICS code is 541614. The Transportation and Climate Division (TCD) of the U.S. EPA is responsible for understanding and analyzing the economic and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) impacts of renewable fuel policies affecting the U.S. transportation sector. Economic models are necessary to develop this analysis for various renewable fuel pathways, as well as for providing estimates of the impacts of waiving provisions of the Renewable Fuel Standard.The nature of the acquisition requires a contractor that possesses the unique capability/capabilities of understanding how changes in U.S. renewable fuel demand in the transportation sector impacts the domestic and international agriculture sector in terms of economic and environmental effects. Many of the policies TCD needs to analyze have not been well studied in the past, and may therefore require conducting new analysis, or modifying underlying assumptions or updating current analysis with more recent information. EPA has conducted market research to determine those firms that could conduct these types of analyses, and the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University was identified as the only firm that has the capability to analyze the domestic and international impacts of the increased use of renewable fuels in the U.S. transportation sector using highly detailed, partial-equilibrium economic models that provide the necessary information sufficient for the needs of EPA?s analysis. This capability includes detailed analyses of the domestic and international agriculture commodity sectors, comprising impacts on commodity prices, trade, and production on a country-by-country basis on a commodity-by-commodity basis. In some cases, namely the U.S. and Brazil, a more detailed regional analysis can be provided for more accurate accounting of impacts on crop and livestock production area, which ultimately provides EPA the ability to conduct more accurate greenhouse gas emission impacts. The domestic and international commodity models that CARD maintains as part of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute are updated on an annual basis and presented to Congress. These models are specifically designed to make future projections for commodity production, prices, and trade in the domestic and international agriculture sector, including biofuels. In addition, CARD maintains and operates a detailed stochastic model that can analyze the causal relationships between the domestic agriculture and energy markets. The combined capability of these tools results in a unique and comprehensive approach to analyze the economic and environmental impacts of the production and use of renewable fuel in the U.S. transportation sector. In addition with their long-time expertise in producing projections for the global agriculture sector, and their capability to analyze various policy scenarios regarding the use of renewable fuel, CARD is uniquely qualified to provide the analysis that is needed by EPA.CARD is the only known source able to satisfy the Government?s requirement(s) because as the owner and operator of a unique set of partial-equilibrium international commodity models that can analyze U.S. production and consumption of renewable fuel in the transportation sector, as well as stochastic models analyzing the U.S. agriculture and energy sectors, the contractor will be able to prepare analysis with a level of detail in an expedited manner necessary to support TCD?s high priority, mission critical, regulatory and legislative analysis activities.Work is to consist of the following:Task One: Modeling Alternative Scenarios of Renewable Transportation Fuels from the Agriculture Sector using the FAPRI models.Alternative scenarios will be analyzed to provide estimates of the impacts of different renewable fuels volumes on the agricultural sector, domestically as well as globally. Examples of the variables of interest to be analyzed include commodity prices, commodity usage patterns, food prices, changes in agricultural commodity imports and exports, and land usage pattern changes.For each scenario, the changes in crops and livestock production in the U.S., Brazil (for example), and other major producing countries will be estimated relative to baseline levels using CARD?s domestic and international agricultural sector models. Deliverables: The Contractor will conduct analyses of the U.S. and global agriculture sector tailored specifically to EPA?s questions/scenarios. Technical directives will be given to the Contractor specifying the types of analyses and scenarios the Contractor shall undertake. Modeling results will be provided in the form of spreadsheets, briefing packages and short Memorandum.Task Two: Maintain and Enhance Models of the U.S. Agricultural and Energy Sectors to Enable Analysis of Biofuel Markets and Impact of MandatesThe analysis of the current and expected future impact of mandated biofuels volumes requires maintenance of stochastic models that can account for volatility in agricultural prices and production and volatility in energy prices. Existing models in FAPRI of the corn, soybean, ethanol, biodiesel, gasoline, diesel, and other commodity markets will be maintained and enhanced as needed to provide analytical capability that EPA can use to better understand the impacts of RFS mandates. Possible uses of this analysis could include evaluating RFS waiver requests. The models will be used to estimate the distribution of changes in crop prices, fuel prices, and the impacts of the RFS on consumers, biofuels producers, taxpayers, and livestock feeders.Deliverables: The Contractor will provide documentation listing and briefly describing the assumptions and impacts of the models employed. Upon request from EPA, the models will be used to estimate the impacts of RFS mandates. The impacts will be reported in the in the form of spreadsheets, briefing packages and short Memorandum. This is not a request for proposal. However, any firm believing itself capable of meeting EPA's requirement may submit technical documentation to establish the potential of complying with the specifications. Such documentation must be submitted to the point of contact within 15 days of the posting of this notice. A determination not to compete the proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered only for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement or to proceed on a sole source basis. The applicable NAICS code is 541614. Please submit your request in writing to: US EPA, Samantha Fuchs at 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr, Cincinnati, OH, 45268 or fax your request to (513) 487-2107, or email fuchs.samantha@epa.gov. No telephone request will be honored. Additional Info: The Environmental Protection Agency Contracting Office Address: Cincinnati Procurement Operations Division 26 W. Martin Luther King Drive Cincinnati, OH 45268 Point of Contact(s): Samantha Fuchs, Contract Specialist, Phone: 513-487-2347, E-Mail: fuchs.samantha@epa.gov
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