RE: What's EPA's Action Based On This Dialogue ? REPLY: It Takes Time and Money

[David Hahn-Baker <dhahnbaker@aol.com>]

Fred, I think you raise some good questions and I hope that EPA actually responds to you and to us as a group.  I too think this event is an interesting attempt, but your question does prompt me to ask: How does EPA plan for this event to make a difference in its actions?  What do EPA staff envision as the potential types of impacts that this dialogue will have on their actions?  What makes this dialogue different than just going through the motions so that some staffers somewhere can simply put this effort out there as proof they did public participation even though it created no real changes in anyone's actions within the agency.

I do like this effort because it is interesting for me to see what other people are thinking.  However, I do have to ask and hope I get some type of answer from someone within EPA:  How do you hope and expect that this dialogue will make a difference or it's too early to tell with this activity, how has the other dialogue that you did made a difference in the real world?