SPEA professors joins EPA advisory board

Longtime IU faculty member Jim Barnes has been appointed chair of the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Financial Advisory Board. Barnes is a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the IU School of Law. \nIn addition to his new role as chair of EPA board, Barnes has held numerous distinguished positions at IU and elsewhere. From 1998 to 2000, he was the dean of SPEA. Currently, he serves on the board of trustees of the National Institute for Global Environmental Change, is a member of the Department of Energy's Environmental Management Board, is vice president of the board of trustees of America's Clean Water Foundation and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. \n"I am used to having to balance my time and keep a lot of balls in play as I have had to do that in positions I have held in the past," Barnes said. "I enjoy the challenge of having a variety of important things to be engaged in." \nAs chairman of the Environmental Financial Advisory Board, the administrator of the EPA selected Barnes for a two-year term. However, being appointed chair of the board isn't his first employment with the EPA. \nBarnes contributed to its creation and acted as chief of staff for its first administrator. For nearly 20 years, Barnes was general counsel for the EPA, and in the 1980s, he served as deputy administrator of the EPA.\nCurrent SPEA Dean Astrid Merget has been a colleague of Barnes' for nearly 15 years. She said Barnes has "exceptional expertise" and is "very comfortable in the world of policy-making."\nBarnes and other board members have been selected to give a "cross-media, intergovernmental perspective on environmental finance," according to the EPA's Web site. The board's purpose is to offer authoritative analysis, advise the EPA administrator on financial issues and help the agency with its environmental mandates. \nBarnes added that members of the board determine the success of the committee. \n"The board is a source of advice to the agency and provides a variety of different insights and perspectives," Barnes said. "From what I have found, it is a group of very knowledgeable, well-placed, experienced and thoughtful citizens." \nBoard members meet semi-annually and have three environmental financing goals: to lower the costs of environmental protection, increase public and private investment in environmental facilities and services, and build the state and local financial capacity necessary to carry out environmental mandates. \nBarnes said he wants to utilize his position as chairman to the best of his ability during his two-year term. \n"My overall goal is to see that the board delivers sound work products to EPA in the desired time frame in which the agency needs them."\nMerget said she believes Barnes' new position as chair is an extraordinary example of academic and professional experience in government and "a point of pride for the school"