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Performance-Based Programs and the National Environmental Performance Partnership System
Efforts are currently underway to integrate the efforts of Performance Track and state performance-based environmental leadership programs into EPA’s Performance Partnership Grants (PPGs) and other state grants.
The goals for this initiative include:
- Providing states with greater flexibility to
deploy resources for performance-based programs;
- Working with regions and states to include
commitments such as incentives development and
recruiting in the PPG workplans;
- Identifying opportunities where performance-based
work could be substituted for one or more commitments
in the workplan; and
- Communicating the progress of the above activities to other states.
Background on the National Environmental Performance Partnership System
In 1995, state and EPA leaders developed the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) to work together more effectively—as partners—to solve the nation's remaining environmental challenges.
NEPPS is designed to:
- Promote joint planning and priority-setting based on information about environmental conditions and program needs;
- Give states greater flexibility to direct resources to the most pressing environmental problems;
- Foster use of innovative strategies for solving water, air, and waste problems;
- Use a balanced mix of environmental indicators and traditional activity measures for managing programs; and
- Improve public understanding of environmental conditions and protection efforts.
Many states develop Performance Partnership Agreements (PPAs) with EPA regional offices. In this process, EPA and state officials sit down together to discuss environmental conditions and program needs, agree on goals and priorities, devise strategies for addressing priority needs, determine the roles and responsibilities of each partner, and decide how they will measure progress. States can choose to receive federal environmental program grant funds in a combined PPG, which allows them to direct resources where they are needed most.
The PPA negotiation process presents an excellent opportunity for discussing and defining how EPA and a state will collaborate and coordinate between state performance-based environmental initiatives and corresponding federal programs such as Performance Track.
For more information on Performance Track and NEPPS,
contact Ted Cochin at (202) 566-2181.