BACKGROUND
One of the major challenges of the 21st century is obtaining
funds for environmental programs. The costs of environmental
protection are growing rapidly. Yet our nation's ability to meet
these rising costs is falling behind -- and the financing gap is
widening. Consequently, the nation needs to make the effort to
develop long-term funding strategies.
Because we live in times of diminishing resources and
competing priorities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
has developed the Environmental Finance Program to assist
communities in their search for creative approaches to funding
their environmental projects.
The Environmental Finance Program at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency provides financial technical assistance to the
regulated community and advice and recommendations to the Agency
on environmental finance issues, trends, and options.
PURPOSE AND ACTIVITIES
Drawing on the financing expertise of staff, the
Environmental Financial Advisory Board, and university based
Environmental Finance Centers, the Environmental Finance Program
seeks to lower costs, increase investment, and build capacity by
creating partnerships with state and local governments and the
private sector to fund environmental needs.
The Environmental Finance Program operates through three
activities:
-
The
Environmental Financial Advisory Board or EFAB
is a
federally chartered advisory committee consisting of a diverse
group of independent financing experts from public and private
sector organizations interested in lowering environmental costs
and increasing investment in environmental facilities and
services. The Board produces policy and technical reports on a
wide range of environmental finance matters of interest to EPA.
It focuses on environmental finance issues at all levels of
government, particularly with regard to their impact on local
governments and small communities. The Board seeks to increase
the total investment in environmental protection by facilitating
greater leverage of public and private environmental resources.
-
The
Environmental Finance Center (EFC) Network
is a
university-based program providing financial outreach services to
regulated communities. The Network consists of nine EFCs that
share information and expertise on finance issues and engage
jointly in projects. The Network includes (in order of their
establishment): the University of New Mexico in Region 6; the
University of Maryland in Region 3; Syracuse University in Region
2; California State University at Hayward in Region 9; the Great
Lakes EFC at Cleveland State University in Region 5; Boise
State University in Idaho located in Region 10; University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in Region 4;
University of Louisville - Center For Environmental Policy & Management in
Region 4; and
the University of Southern Maine in Region 1.
The EFCs
educate state and local officials and small businesses on
lowering costs of compliance and pollution prevention, increasing
investments in environmental protection, improving financial
capacity to own/operate environmental systems, encouraging the
full cost pricing of environmental services, and identifying and
evaluating financing tools and options.
-
The
Environmental Financing Information Network (EFIN)
is an
outreach service offering electronic access to many types of
environmental financing information on financing alternatives for
State and local environmental programs and projects. EFIN
services include a World Wide Web site, an on-line data base,
referrals to an expert contact network, infoline, and
distribution of
Environmental Finance Program publications
and
some EPA publications.
EFIN also maintains a Web page of
Environmental Financial Tools
.
This page includes tools produced by the Environmental Finance Program, the
Environmental
Financial Advisory Board (EFAB), the Environmental Finance Center Network
(EFCs), EFIN, EPA
Offices and Programs and Other (outside EPA) sources.
A key work among the financing mechanisms on this page is the
Guidebook of Financial Tools.
. The
Guidebook
is produced by the
Environmental Finance Center Network and the Environmental
Financial Advisory Board. It is intended as a basic financial
reference document for public and private officials with
environmental responsibilities. It provides a wealth of valuable
information on 340 financing tools that federal, state, and local
governments and the private sector can use to pay for
environmental programs, systems, and activities. The information
is intended to help governments and other parties expand their
thinking about the financial options/resources available to help
meet important environmental mandates and create sustainable
systems. A new edition of the
Guidebook
is in production and the Environmental Finance Team is actively seeking
submissions for new tools
at the
Guidebook website
.
You
will need
Adobe Acrobat Reader
( )
to view a number of files on this site. For more information about Adobe
Acrobat, click
here
.
|
|
EFP Brochure
in PDF Format
.
For further information on the Environmental Finance Program and
its many products, including the
Guidebook
, return to the Home Page
at
http://www.epa.gov/efinpage/
or
contact:
efin@epa.gov
. See also the list of
contacts
for the components of the program.
|
