ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCIAL ADVISORY BOARD
STRATEGIC ACTION AGENDA
Fiscal Years 2004-2005
BACKGROUND
The nation has made huge investments in, and significant progress toward, controlling pollution
discharges and restoring environmental quality. Much of the credit for this success is due to EPA's
use of regulatory and enforcement tools, and to the transfer of significant resources from the federal
government to state and local governments to help construct environmental infrastructure.
Two trends challenge our ability to maintain and improve our standard of environmental quality.
First, needs and expectations for environmental protection continue to grow. Second, federal
deficits, tax reduction initiatives, and growing overall demands on state resources constrain
traditional public sources of environmental funding. The result is an increasing tension between the
costs of environmental protection and the resources available to meet those costs.
To address these environmental and resource challenges in a sustainable manner, EPA will need to
consider the full range of finance-related alternatives available. This effort will include traditional
regulatory and enforcement tools and federal assistance programs. It will also require innovative
projects and technologies, improved efficiencies, creative financing techniques, and leveraged
public-private partnerships.
The Environmental Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) and Environmental Finance Center (EFC)
Network look to be an integral part of this EPA effort. EFAB is chartered under the Federal
Advisory Committee Act to advise EPA on environmental finance issues, options, proposals, and
trends. EFAB seeks practical ways of lowering costs and increasing investments in public purpose
environmental facilities and services. The EFC Network consists of nine university-based programs
that deliver traditional and innovative financial outreach services to the regulated communities.
EFAB is supported by EPA's Office of the Chief Financial Officer, headed by Linda Combs.
EFAB's Chair is the Honorable Lyons Gray of North Carolina. Its Executive Director and
Designated Federal Official is A. Stanley Meiburg, Deputy Regional Administrator, Region 4. At
the beginning of each fiscal year, EFAB updates its Strategic Action Agenda. EFAB's plans and
operations are aligned with the major environmental goals presented in EPA's strategic plan.
EPA GOALS AND EFAB ISSUES
EFAB's work for Fiscal Years 2004-2005 is organized in support of the five major thematic goals
laid out in EPA's Strategic Plan 2003-2008:
1. Clean Air and Global Climate Change Protect and improve the air so it is healthy to
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breathe and risks to human health and the environment are reduced. Reduce green house gas
intensity by enhancing partnerships with businesses and other sectors.
2. Clean and Safe Water Ensure drinking water is safe. Restore and maintain oceans,
watersheds, and their aquatic systems to protect human health, support economic and
recreational activities, and provide healthy habitat for fish, plants, and wildlife.
3. Land Preservation and Restoration Preserve and restore the land by using innovative
waste management practices and cleaning up contaminated properties to reduce risks posed
by releases of harmful substances.
4. Healthy Communities and Ecosystems Protect, sustain, or restore the health of people,
communities, and ecosystems using integrated and comprehensive approaches and
partnerships.
5. Compliance and Environmental Stewardship Improve environmental performance
through compliance with environmental requirements, preventing pollution, and promoting
environmental stewardship. Protect human health and the environment by encouraging
innovation and providing incentives for governments, businesses, and the public that
promote environmental stewardship
In its own strategic planning process, EFAB annually applies these thematic EPA goals in the
context of the requirement in its charter to provide advice and recommendations on the following
issues:
• Reducing the cost of financing environmental facilities and discouraging polluting behavior;
• Creating incentives to increase private investment in the provision of environmental services
and removing or reducing constraints on private involvement imposed by current
regulations;
• Developing new and innovative environmental financing approaches and supporting and
encouraging the use of effective existing approaches;
• Identifying approaches specifically targeted to small community financing;
• Assessing government strategies for implementing public-private partnerships, including
privatization, operations and maintenance issues, and other alternative financing
mechanisms;
• Improving governmental principles of accounting and disclosure standards and how they
affect environmental programs;
• Increasing the capacity of state and local governments to carry out their respective
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environmental programs under current Federal tax laws;
• Increasing the total investment in environmental protection of public and private
environmental resources to help ease the environmental financing challenge facing our
nation; and
• Removing barriers and increasing opportunities for the U.S. financial services and
environmental goods and services industries in other nations.
Based on these goals and objectives and input from the Agency, EFAB develops its Strategic Action
Agenda describing the workgroup structure and listing completed, ongoing, and new projects. Each
citation gives the project title, lead workgroup, the Agency's strategic plan goal, and the primary
customer to be served. Given the number, scope, and nature of the issues, six workgroups are taking
the lead in developing projects for consideration and approval by the Full Board.
CURRENT EFAB PROJECTS
* Joint Operations of the State Revolving Fund Programs: Chaired by Sonia
Toledo, Lehman Brothers, New York, NY
* Partnership and Collaboration of Non-Point Source Financing: Chaired by
Langdon Marsh, National Policy Consensus Center, Portland State University,
Portland, OR
* Affordability Issues: Co-chaired by John McCarthy, Northeastern Rural
Community Assistance Program Solutions, Winchendon, MA and Dr. Andrew
Sawyers, Maryland Department of the Environment, Baltimore, MD
* Innovative Financing Tools: Chaired by Michael Curley, The International Center
for Environmental Finance, Lutherville, MD
* Preventing Future Non-Funded Abandoned Sites: Co-chaired by A. James
Barnes, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN and Mary Francoeur, Financial
Guaranty Insurance Co., New York, NY
* Useful Life of Financing Water Facilities: Chaired by George Butcher, Goldman
Sachs & Co., New York, NY
STATUS OF EFAB PROJECTS (FY 2003-2004)
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Completed Projects FY 2003
5. Financial Checklist for Consent Decrees. Consultation, February 2003
EPA Strategic Goal: Compliance and Environmental Stewardship
Primary Customer: Office of Enforcement, Compliance and Assurance
2. Protecting America's Land Legacy: Stewardship Policies, Tools, and Incentives. Report,
February 2003
EPA Strategic Goal: Compliance and Environmental Stewardship, Land
Preservation and Restoration
Primary Customer: Agency
3. Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34. Letter Report, July 2003
EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water, Land Preservation and Restoration,
Primary Customer: Office of Water
4. Environmental Management Systems. Letter Report, July 2003
EPA Strategic Goal: Various
Primary Customer: Office of Water
5. Coordination of EPA and VSDA Water and Sewer Loan Assistance. Report, August 2003
EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water
Primary Customer: Office of Water
Ongoing Projects FY 2004
1. Joint Operations of the SRF Programs
EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water
Primary Customer: Office of Water
2. Partnership and Collaboration of Non-Point Source Financing
EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water, Healthy Communities and
Ecosystems
Primary Customer: Office of Water
New Projects FY 2004
1. Affordability Issues
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EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water, Compliance and Environmental
Stewardship
Primary Customer: Office of Water
2. Transportation Financing Tools
EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water
Primary Customer: Office of Water
3. Preventing Future Non-Funded Abandoned Sites
EPA Strategic Goal: Land Preservation and Restoration, Compliance and
Environmental Stewardship
Primary Customer: Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
4. Useful Life of Financing Water Facilities
EPA Strategic Goal: Clean and Safe Water
Primary Customer: Office of Water
• This strategic action agenda is a flexible planning tool and it will be revised and updated
during the fiscal year as needed. Any revisions will be shown on the Board's home page at:
http ://www. epa. gov/efmpage/efab .htm
• The next meeting of the Full Board is scheduled for March 9-10, 2004 in Washington, DC.
The primary purpose of this meeting is to report on the progress of the various Board
projects and to hear the views of, and interact with, senior-level Agency mangers.
• The next summer meeting of the Full Board is scheduled for August 16-17, 2004 in San
Francisco, CA. The primary purpose of this meeting is to discuss progress with work
products under EFAB's current strategic action agenda and to develop an action agenda to
direct the Board's ongoing and new activities.
• EF AB members also contribute their time to assisting other EPA initiatives, most notably the
Environmental Finance Center (EFC) Network. The EFC Directors serve as expert
witnesses to the Board and provide key assistance to EFAB. The home page for the EFC
Network is: www.epa.gov/efmpage/efc.htm
• Your comments are important and welcome. Please call or e-mail Vanessa Bowie,
Environmental Finance Program Team Leader at (202) 564-5186 or
bowie.vanessa@epa.gov.
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