The International Conference on
Ecology & Transportation (ICOET)

 

Public-Private Partnerships in Transportation:
Environmental Considerations (PPPTE)

Why is PPP important to the USFWS?

Funding:
Transportation agencies are looking to fund transportation needs through private investment and partnerships. How can the FWS support PPPs as one approach to addressing congestion and ensure that funding for environmental protections are built into economic viability analyses. Should a cost analysis for environmental protection be developed to inform private investors and ensure such costs are built into their proposals?

Discretion and Environmental Responsibility:
Can PPPs blur the lines of who is responsible for what impact? FWS may want to require PPPs to include an implementation agreement with an adaptive management feature to monitor environmental impacts and adjust environmental requirements accordingly to meet changing environmental baseline and emerging issues. How can lessons learned from our Habitat
Conservation Planning experiences guide us?

Intellectual Property Rights / Sunshines Laws:
How do we balance the public's right to know while respecting the proprietary rights of our private partners?

Rapid Ecological Assessments:
How can existing ecological assessments be used or modified to develop PPPs? Could they be developed to flesh out the environmental needs prior to finalizing PPP agreements to ensure that key, locally important resource issues and resource trends are appropriately considered relative to the scope of the PPP agreement? As transportation projects have direct and indirect impacts to natural resources and can encourage or discourage development that can affect critical ecological values, early consideration of environmental considerations is crucial. PPPs may involve private interests unfamiliar with the importance of environmental protection and its remedies. Can ecological assessments ensure all parties are negotiating with the best information to ensure success?

Failures of PPPs:
What are the risks of a PPP failing? A variety of PPPs have resulted in expedited resource impacts and private defaults when the financial gains have been made and the resource protections are critical. Review of PPPs might facilitate adequate protections.

Some Initial Considerations to Stimulate Thinking:

• What are the implications of public-private partnerships to the FWS and FWS' ability to fulfull its mission?
• Because Federal agencies, such as transportation agencies, partner with private investors to meet public needs, we may want to consider the role the FWS plays and how it might change under a range of public-private partner scenarios.
• The primary motivating factor to enter into a PPP is likely improved use of public funds through increased efficiency (i.e., more valued work accomplished per dollar expended). I can see where PPP innovations will increase where private partners are able to keep part of the savings that they create through their involvement. How does the FWS ensure that the private partners share in the profits as well as the costs of environmental protection/restoration at the appropriate levels?
  What are the appropriate levels of protection/restoration under a PPP?
• How does the FWS ensure that the costs and benefits of PPP for transportation are appropriately extended to environmental protection and ecological restoration?
• Should environmental remediation for critical ecological impacts of a pre-existing roads be considered as part of a public-private partnership "package," just as funding or managing the ongoing operation and maintenance of that existing road?
• FWS should also look at examples of public-private partnerships in non-transportation sectors to take advantage of successes, avoid failures, and take advantage of other lessons learned.

What are Examples of a PPP?
Common examples of PPPs include the private funding, design, and build efforts of toll roads for a period of time. Additional information on PPPs is available below:

FHWA Website on Public Private Partnerships
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/PPP/defined.htm

Report to Congress - December 2004:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/pppdec2004/index.htm

States with significant legislation supporting Public Private Partnerships:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/PPP/legislation.htm

For More Information
Joe Burns, National Transportation Liaison, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Joe_Burns@fws.gov
Phone: 703.358.2183