Comment Policy

We encourage you to share your thoughts as they relate to the topic being discussed. We review and post comments according to the policy below. The views expressed in comments reflect those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the federal government. Comments featured in this forum do not constitute comments for a rulemaking record. In addition, EPA will not be under any obligation to respond to such comments.

We want to publish your comments, but we expect comments generally to be courteous. To that end, we have established the following policy.

We reserve the discretion not to post comments that:

• contain obscene, indecent, or profane language;
• contain threats or defamatory statements;
• contain hate speech directed at race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, religion, or disability; or
• promote or endorse services or products. (Note that non-commercial links that are relevant to the topic or another comment are acceptable.)

Do not submit copyrighted or other proprietary material in any form unless you clearly indicate that you have permission to do so. By posting your comments or other work, you grant EPA and anyone viewing EPA’s Wood Smoke Information Exchange irrevocable permission to copy, distribute, make derivatives, display or perform the commenter’s work publicly and free-of-charge.

We recognize that the Internet is a 24/7 medium and your comments are welcome at any time. However, given the need to manage federal resources, we intend to review and post comments from 8:30 am – 5:30 pm Monday through Friday except for on federal holidays. We intend to review and post comments submitted at other times as soon as possible on the next business day.

In some cases we ask you to provide your name and e-mail address, although providing either is optional. We request your name to make it easier to carry on a conversation. For this reason, we publish your name along with your comment. We ask for your e-mail address so that we can contact you if necessary. It is our policy not to publish your e-mail address.

To protect your privacy, please do not include information (e.g., an e-mail address or phone number) in the text of your comment that identifies you.

You can find additional guidance as to how EPA regards privacy issues within the privacy policy provided on EPA’s main Web site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this comment policy. We encourage your participation in our discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.

If you have questions about this comment policy or how we apply it, please contact Kristen Bremer at bremer.kristen@epa.gov