Valerie Thomas, the Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems and Professor in the H. Milton School of Industrial and Systems Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy, briefed Congress on Oct. 18, the day before the release of a report by the National Academies Committee on Current Methods for Life Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Thomas chaired the committee. “Life cycle assessments are vital tools for environmental public policy design and the development of low-carbon fuel standards, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach for practitioners—it’s a matter of picking the right tool for the job,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine news release quoted Thomas as saying.