Congress introduced information disclosure nearly two decades ago as a strategy for improving industrial environmental performance.

Mr. President, I recommend that your administration reinvigorate environmental information disclosure as a policy tool.

The effort could involve enhancing existing programs or creating an entirely new program. Your administration should evaluate whether a new disclosure program would help you achieve your top environmental goals.

A new program might include, for example, a single point of entry for information on drinking-water contaminants or an integrated database on polluted coastal waters.

Download this Policy Recommendation

The process by which a new or enhanced disclosure program is developed is as important as its substance. Policy development should include an open and transparent process for cataloging and rigorously evaluating the claims of proponents and critics of disclosure.

Particularly important is that your administration seriously address the regulated communities' concerns about cost, privacy, and security through thoughtful program design.

Related Policy Recommendations:

Chapter 22. Combatting Ignorance About U.S. Water Quality 
James Boyd and Leonard Shabman

Chapter 23. Create a Bureau of Environmental Statistics
H. Spencer Banzhaf

Chapter 25. Better Evaluation of Life-Saving Environmental Regulations 
Maureen L. Cropper

Thomas C. Beierle, a former RFF fellow, has looked closely at stakeholder involvement in environmental decisionmaking and has extensively studied the impact of public participation in environmental policy formulation. He currently is an associate with Ross and Associates Environmental Consulting in Seattle.

All Policy Recommendations in New Approaches on Energy and the Environment are available for complimentary download from each chapter's webpage. (Copyright © 2004 by Resources for the Future.) Use of these chapters is for personal use only. Contents may not be duplicated or retransmitted by print, electronic, or other means without written permission of the publisher. To purchase a printed copy of the book, click on the button below.