The Department issues an open invitation to interested individuals to attend one of five public meetings on Florida’s Diesel Emission Mitigation Program, which stems from the United States government’s settlement with Volkswagen resolving claims that it violated the Clean Air Act by selling diesel vehicles that violated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mobile source emission standards. Each meeting will consist of a presentation describing the mitigation planning process and an opportunity for attendees to meet Division staff who will be developing Florida’s State Beneficiary Mitigation Plan. For individuals who are unable to attend an in-person meeting, the Department will host two webinars on which identical information will be presented to attendees. The Department will announce the dates and times for those webinars in a future notice. All presentation materials used at the in-person meeting and webinar will be posted to the Department’s website in coming weeks. The Department respectfully requests that persons planning to attend any one of the public meetings submit an RSVP, e-mail the Division at VWMitigation@floridadep.gov, or contact John Paul Fraites at (850) 717-9021. The Department also announces the opening of an online public survey (Diesel Emissions Mitigation Program Public Survey), which will be available for a period 60 days. The survey will close on May 11, 2018. The Department will use responses obtained through this survey in developing Florida’s State Beneficiary Mitigation Plan. Individuals interested in submitting general comments on Florida’s approach to developing the State Beneficiary Mitigation plan may also e-mail those comments to VWMitigation@floridadep.gov. Consistent with the terms of the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Environmental Mitigation Trust, Florida’s State Beneficiary Mitigation Plan must be submitted to the Trustee at least 30 days prior to the submittal of any project-specific funding request. At this time, the Department is focused exclusively on the development of Florida’s State Beneficiary Mitigation Plan. The Department is not soliciting funding requests or proposals for any specific diesel emissions mitigation project. For more information about Florida’s Diesel Emission Mitigation Program, please visit: https://floridadep.gov/air/air-director/content/volkswagen-settlement-florida-mitigation-fund