US-AEP�s Environmental Exchange Program and the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), a US-AEP partner, collaborated on a three-week exchange to help the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) strengthen its Environmental Enforcement Division. Mr. Mike Berriesford, supervising investigator for the Criminal Investigations Branch of CalEPA, worked closely with BMA staff to establish the division�s administrative structure as well as action plans for media-specific enforcement and public awareness campaigns.

The June 4�26 exchange is a component of CalEPA�s ongoing work with BMA, which focuses on improving BMA�s capacity to manage environmental regulation, monitoring, and enforcement. [Note: US-AEP�s Environmental Exchange Program is administered by the Institute of International Education.]

The Salem Dharmapuri Chamber of Commerce (SDCC) in South India recently won a prestigious award for a project on which US-AEP provided assistance. The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE)�an international association of energy and environment professionals based in Atlanta, Georgia�awarded SDCC its 1999 international Energy Project of the Year award for a methane recovery project in a local starch processing facility.

The project originated in 1997 when the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board banned the starch facilities� practice of routing untreated effluents to open gutters. Seeking assistance, SDCC President Mr. S. Sathyanarayanan contacted US-AEP�s Sundaresan Subramanian, who persuaded facility operators to explore American waste-to-energy technologies and to become members of AEE. Later, the New Jersey Institute of Technology volunteered to conduct a feasibility study for a SDCC waste-to-energy project. When the study results were found favorable, SDCC teamed up with a local facility to demonstrate how recovered methane can be reused as fuel.

Project results were two-fold: the concept of waste-to-energy was successfully demonstrated to the industry and public, and SDCC became the first-ever Indian recipient of the AEE award.

On June 26, US-AEP�s State Environmental Initiative (SEI) funded a pilot train-the-trainers course on "Environmental Cost Assessment and Cleaner Production" for members of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA). The preliminary course taught participants how to uncover and understand their company�s environmental costs and how to correctly evaluate the profitability of environmental projects. After the actual course is presented in September 1999, PICPA representatives will deliver the training to additional Filipino accountants and finance practitioners.

Conducted by the Tellus Institute of Boston, Massachusetts, the June course was a first step toward the SEI�s project goal to introduce concepts of pollution prevention, clean technologies, and environmental accounting to Philippine financial and management accountants. The project is being led by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. [Note: The SEI is administered by the Council of State Governments.]

US-AEP�s Environmental Exchange Program enabled two Asians to study American wind power technologies during a June 13�24 visit to the United States. Mr. Lorenzo Marcelo (National Power Corporation, Quezon City, Philippines), and Mr. Pradip Pant (Lotus Energy, Kathmandu, Nepal) participated in the Wind Energy Training Symposium, which featured stops at several U.S. wind power facilities. Sites visited were the National Renewable Energy Laboratories in Boulder, Colorado; Bergey Windpower Company in Norman, Oklahoma; and several wind farms using turbines designed by Enron Wind Corporation of Bakersfield, California. The delegates also attended presentations on a wide range of topics, including utility interconnection, regulatory issues, and financing mechanisms used in the development of windfarms in overseas markets.

Mr. Marcelo and Mr. Pant later visited the WindPower �99 annual conference in Burlington, Vermont, organized by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). According to AWEA, the U.S. wind industry completed its best year ever as June 1999 came to a close, installing more than $1 billion worth of new generating equipment during the previous 12 months.

As a result of their participation, the delegates will be better able to develop sustainable wind energy projects in their countries, in the long run reducing the use of polluting energy sources.

World Bank seeks feedback on sustainability efforts through online discussion group.

An electronic discussion is underway to evaluate the World Bank Group�s success in promoting environmental sustainability. Join this moderated e-mail discussion on the World Bank�s website, located at <www.worldbank.org/devforum/current-environment.html>. Discussions began on July 6 and will continue for four to six weeks. Contributions will ultimately be gathered in a report, which will form the basis for the World Bank�s future work.

July 27 Policy Forum: innovation in environmental policy.