UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
                            WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
                                                                        OFFICE OF
                                                                    THE ADMINISTRATOR
                                 May 15,2006
The Head Librarian
EPA's Headquarter Library
Room 3340 EPA West Building
MC: 3404T
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Librarian:

      Enclosed arc two copies of the 2005 reports of the U.S. National Advisory
Committee (NAC) and the U.S. Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). This
notification is provided to you in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act
(FAC A) Section 13.
NAC Advice letters:

    •   Advice letter:  May 20, 2005
    •   Advice letter:  November 16. 2005

GAC Advice letters:

    •   Advice letter:  May 19,2005
    •   Advice letter:  November 22, 2005
                                 Sincerely,
                                 Oscar Carrillo
                                 Designated Federal Officer
                                                                  Recycled/Recyclable
                                                                  Printed with SoyfCanola Ink on paper thai
                                                                  contains at least 50% recycled fiber

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IMS. Governmental Advisory Committee
Independent Federal Aitruorj
on the North American
Agreement on Environmental Cooperation
   Committee
    Members
                                                                  Chair
                                                                  Stephen M Mahfood
                                                                  Telephone 573-694-6150
                                                                  E-mail kasmahf@cs com

                                                                  Designated Federal Officer
                                                                  Oscar Camllo
                                                                  Tel 202-233-0072
                                                                  camllo oscar@qa.gov
 Charles Collette
    Florida

 Michael J Colvin
     Ohio

   Lisa Cover
   New Mexico

  Robert Huston
     Texas

  Karl Kalbacher
    Delaware

   Sarah D. Lile
    Michigan

  James R Mate
     Texas

 Ricardo Martinez
    California

   Placido Dos
     Santos
    Arizona

   Harvey Rubin
    Florida

   Colin Soto
    Arizona
                                            May 19,2005
The Honorable Stephen L. Johnson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460

Dear Administrator Johnson:

       The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to the U.S. Representative  to the
North  American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) met from April 27
through April  29th, 2005, in Washington, D.C.  It is my pleasure to submit to you the
following report from our meeting.  This letter provides advice on four major topics: 1)
Capacity Building, 2)  the CEC's  Operational Plan and Budget and its relation to the Ten-
Year Review  recommendations,  3) the Article  10(6) process,  and 4) issues related to
information sharing and the use of GAC expertise.

       First, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on becoming the 11th
Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  We look forward to working
with you and providing you relevant and  timeJy advice.

       In addition, we would like to express our appreciation to all of the private sector
representatives who provided valuable  information  on  environmental  capacity  building
activities in Mexico.   We especially want to thank three members of the National Advisory
Committee who were instrumental in making the Business Roundtable a success, namely
Aldo Morell, from DuPont, Rich Guimond, from Motorola and Adam Greene, from the U.S.
Council for International Business.

    We also want to recognize the work of EPA's Office of Cooperative Environmental
Management for their hard work in organizing our meetings. We appreciate the participation
of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and EPA's Office of International Affairs.
The information they  provided was very useful in developing our advice.  Doug Wright's
presentation on behalf of the CEC Secretariat was also very useful in understanding the
current status of the budget and the Commission's strategic direction. In addition we would
like to thank Duiker Desai, a member of Joint Public Advisory Committee for participating
in our meeting.
     Administrative support Tor the GAC is provided by the U S environmental Protection Agency, Office of Cooperative Environmental Management
                              Mail Code I60IE, 655 15*51 Suite 800 Washington, D C 20005
                                        (1)202-233-0072 (0 202-233-0060

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   We spent most of our time on the topic of environmental capacity building which is one of the guiding
pillars in the new CEC strategic plan.  Our meeting included a one-day Business Roundtable to examine
successful environmental capacity building initiatives by the private sector and others in Mexico.  The
Roundtable  brought  together senior industry and multilateral organizations to learn about successful
environmental  partnerships.  The roundtable included a wide spectrum of speakers ranging from DuPont,
Motorola, to the World Bank and USAID. Both the GAC and NAG members were very impressed with the
caliber of speakers and presentations. Please see attachment A for a copy of the Roundtable agenda.

       We hope  our advice  is useful  in  developing U.S. positions on capacity  building and  for your
preparations for the CEC Council Session in Quebec City, Canada on June 21-23. If your schedule permits,
we would very much welcome the opportunity to meet with you there, as the GAC did last year. We would
also like to pursue a joint meeting of the advisory committees, as we have traditionally done in the past.

                                        Sincerely,
                                        Stepfte^ M. Njahfobd, Chair
                                        Governmental Advfcory Committee

cc.    Judith Ayres, Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of International Affairs
       Jerry Clifford, Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of International Affairs
       John Knox, Chair, U.S. National Advisory Committee
       Arturo Duran, Chair, Joint Public Advisory Committee
       Jean Perras, Chair, Canadian National Advisory Committee
       Members of the U.S. Governmental Advisory Committee:
             Charles Collette                   Sarah D. Lile
             Michael Colvin                    James R.  Matz
             Lisa Cover                        Ricardo Martinez
             Robert Huston                     Harvey Rubin
             Karl Kalbacher                    Placido Dos Santos
             Colin Soto

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                        Governmental Advisory Committee
                          to the U.S. Representative to the
                    Commission for Environmental Cooperation

                    Advice 2005-1:  Environmental Capacity Building
       As you know, the CEC is going through a process of deep introspection to see how it can
improve the impacts of its initiatives  The Ten-Year Review of the North American Agreement
on Environmental Cooperation and the NAFTA recommended among other things that "the
CEC should seek a more systematic engagement of the business community "  Thus, the Business
Roundtable was a way to make this a reality by beginning the engagement.

       During our Roundtable meeting we heard presentations from private sector
representatives, multilateral organizations, and foundations on the subject of successful
environmental capacity activities in Mexico.  We were quite impressed with the wide-array of
successful projects on the ground in Mexico.  We saw significant potential for collaboration
among the different non-governmental entities working in Mexico. The CEC can play an
important catalyst role in fostering that collaboration. We recommend that the U.S. support the
CEC role of catalyst and empower the Secretarial to take the lead in aligning private sector
capacity building activities

       We recommend that the U.S. share with the CEC Council the various presentations and
summary of the NAC/GAC Roundlable meeting The CEC should serve as an information
clearinghouse on capacity building projects throughout North America.  In the short-term, we
recommend that the CEC develop a compilation of successful  environmental capacity building
partnerships on their website.

       We are also highly supportive of an initial CEC capacity building conference; bringing
together  12 to 15 companies and/or organizations to start the process of developing synergies
among existing private sector capacity building efforts. The CEC can serve as the catalyst that
ties together a lot of the current capacity building activities in the region.  The CEC can play a
key role in developing a strategic approach to capacity building. Also, we feel it is important
that the U.S. allow this process to move forward without setting too many walls or prescriptive
guidelines. Organizations involved in capacity building are doing the work based on their
enlightened self-interest.  We recommend that the U.S. support this collaborative exercise in
order to create critical mass for future productive action. We are mindful of the political realities
in the NAFTA countries and support the CEC developing strong ties in the private sector,
foundations, and academia, which will provide long-term sustamability for capacity building
initiatives

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                        Governmental Advisory Committee
                          to the U.S. Representative to the
                    Commission for Environmental Cooperation

   Advice 2005-2: CEC Program Plan & Ten-Year Review and Assessment Committee
                                       (TRAC)

       We would like to commend the Secretariat and the Parties for continuing to work at
implementing the TRAC Report recommendations and the three pillars developed in the Puebla
Council Session in 2004. We acknowledge that 2004 and 2005 have been transition years as it
relates to the development of the CEC's Operational Program Plan and Budget.  However, we
believe that in order to keep CEC programs running efficiently and effectively, future program
plans should not take a year to be negotiated and approved by the Parties.  We recommend that
during the Council Session in Quebec City, the U.S. propose a process to ensure the approval of
the 2006 Program plan by December 2005. We encourage the U.S. to provide the GAC with a
draft of the 2006 Program Plan and Budget prior to our meeting in October 2005.

       In addition, we have challenged the U.S. to support the CEC being a "conveyor belt" for
addressing important continental environmental issues. In pursuing the conveyor belt metaphor,
we recommend the development of brief action reports after the Secretariat has handed-off
projects to other qualified organizations. This will serve as a self-affirmation of project closures.
We consider this report a key tool  that will assist the U.S. in realizing  the goal of maintaining a
productive and focused Secretariat. Such brief action reports should be no longer than 3 to 5
pages.

       Furthermore, we believe the TRAC report contains very valuable recommendations  As
the U.S. takes the leadership of the CEC Council in July 2005, we encourage the U S to use the
TRAC recommendations as a point of reference for the next year.  We recommend that the U.S
encourage the CEC Council to follow the TRAC report's fourteenth recommendation which
states that "the Council, with the executive director's assistance andJPAC's advice, report
publicly on the implementation of the these recommendations, including those which have been
fully or partially implemented and those which have not, with  the reasons, to the 2006 annual
meeting of the Council. " The GAC feels that the Council's response should also include how
they will incorporate appropriate TRAC recommendations into the CEC's Operational  Plan and
Budget.

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                        Governmental Advisory Committee
                          to the U.S. Representative to the
                    Commission for Environmental Cooperation

                     Advice 2005-3: Article 10(6) Working Group

      The GAC was pleased to hear that the Article 10(6) Environment and Trade Officials
Working Group are meeting regularly and making progress on the Trade and Environment pillar
set forth in the Puebla Declaration  We commend the group for coming to the near completion
of their "project assessment criteria." Furthermore, per our advice 2004-1, we want to
reemphasize that the "CEC should not be too heavily involved in project implementation
activities, instead it should always be looking for outside implementation opportunities i.e,
handing off projects to other qualified organizations  " We recommend that the final project
assessment criteria in the Trade and Environment pillar incorporate the element of "handing off"
successful projects as a component of their project timeline

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                        Governmental Advisory Committee
                          to the U.S. Representative to the
                    Commission for Environmental Cooperation

             Advice 2005-4:  Information Sharing and Use of GAC Expertise

      The GAC is always appreciative of the opportunity to provide advice to the U S.
government on issues related to the implementation on the North American Agreement on
Environmental Cooperation. The GAC represents the views of State, local, and tribal
governments. In this section, we would like to address a few recommendations that wilt make
our consultative efforts more effective. In past meetings we have been charged with answering
questions from EPA prior to our meetings. These questions are very important to the GAC and
help us to focus our discussions During our April meeting we did not receive any specific
charges and this made our advisory role more difficult to grasp. We understand there arc staff
shortages in the Office of International Affairs, but we want to reiterate the importance of
receiving specific requests for advice so as to focus our attention appropriately.

   Furthermore, we think EPA's Office of International Affairs missed an opportunity to hear
first-hand of the good work being done by numerous organizations on environmental capacity
building in Mexico that was reported at the Business Roundtable on April 27th. Please see
attachment A for a copy of the Business Roundtable agenda.

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