New Tools for Environmental Protection Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures (2002) / Chapter Skim
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15. Harnessing the 'Power of Information': Environmental Right to Know as a Driver of Sound Environmental Policy
15. Harnessing the 'Power of Information': Environmental Right to Know as a Driver of Sound Environmental Policy
Pages 253-262
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From page 253... ...
delivered a new concept in federal environmental policy: the concept of government as a broker of information to which the public has the "right to know." Up until that time, environmental policy at the state and federal level was dominated by air-, water-, and hazardous waste-specific "commandand-control" regulatory approaches. Those conventional approaches oversaw industry operations from a fragmented perspective; overly prescribed expensive, technology-based solutions to industry rather than providing incentives for sound and lasting environmental performance; and did not recognize the role or value of public accountability.
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From page 254... ...
Yet putting chemical release data that are gathered via TRI into the public domain is intended to have an even broader effect than on citizens in local communities. Although the political rhetoric surrounding EPCRA was on empowering local citizens to make personal decisions, the sheer public nature of the data is intended to drive environmental performance at industrial facilities by affecting a host of sectors in society, as illustrated in Figure 15-1.
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From page 255... ...
1 Sector: Community members and organizations Purpose: Local community action, dialogue with local industrial facilities, personal decision making Sector: Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) Purpose: National environmental trends, legislative and regulatory initiatives, state-by-state comparisons, interstate industry targeting 1 _~"Right-to-know" ~ l Environmental l Information J ~ l FIGURE 15-1 Impacts of right to know on societal sectors.
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From page 256... ...
National environmental organizations have documented examples in which citizen organizations have directly used TRI data in organizing community efforts, negotiating with individual facilities, and advocating for new environmental programs (Working Group on Community Right to Know, 1991~. They have also produced guidance for local community groups to use in applying TRI as a tool in community action efforts (Wise and Kenworthy, 1993~.
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From page 257... ...
National Environmental Organizations TRI has become the cornerstone of several leading national environmental organizations' efforts to track industrial environmental performance trends, promote local citizen access to environmental information, undertake direct negotiations with industrial facilities (Natural Resources Defense Council, 1999) , and promote changes to environmental policies.
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From page 258... ...
Specifically, users need both a meaningful reason (motivation) to track down information and the skills to take advantage of it, whether it influences individual choices such as the products they purchase or where they live, or actions at a broader level such as dialogue with polluters, watchdog coalitions, letter campaigns, or legal actions.
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From page 259... ...
Action Thus, achieving success is not a matter of one trip up the steps, but a matter of making numerous revisions along the way. FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES Recognizing the contributions that have been made by TRI and the right-toknow concept overall, and considering the necessary elements to ensure the success of environmental information, it is timely to consider what new policies are needed to maximize the impact that environmental information can play as a driver of policy.
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From page 260... ...
Our goal should be not just to ensure that reported data are efficiently stored and made retrievable, but we also should be enhancing data quality to ensure that data are accurate and can actually help us track compliance and overall environmental performance. A new reporting structure is needed that can have TRI and the right-to-know (RTK)
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From page 261... ...
Fung, A., and D O'Rourke 2000 Reinventing environmental regulation from the grassroots up: Explaining and expanding the success of the Toxics Release Inventory.
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From page 262... ...
Natural Resources Defense Council 1999 Preventing Industrial Pollution at Its Source: The Final Report of the Michigan Source Reduction Initiative. Dillon, CO: Meridian Institute.
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