Getting Information Out

[Jeremiah Baumann <jbaumann@pirg.org>]

Hi. I'm Jeremiah Baumann, toxics and environmental health advocate for U.S. PIRG (public interest research group), which is the national advocacy office for the state PIRGs, a network of public interest advocacy organizations that have worked on right-to-know and access to information for more than a decade.

Thinking generally of the topic of getting information out nationally as well as looking over some of the discussion so far, I see a couple main areas EPA could work on in getting information out:

1-- Getting information out in a timely way.

Specifically getting timely products like TRI data out would make EPA's information products much more useful (at both national and local/regional levels) and would enable EPA to better use the data as well.
In addition, being able to better respond to information requests, including under FOIA, would be a way for EPA to facilitate a more informed and useful dialogue among citizens on particular policies or problems, so that there are more issues where it's not only those with a vested financial interest in a policy or problem (i.e. the regulated community) that has the resources to fully comment and participate.

2-- Increasing (and making more efficient) public access to EPA documents in a wholesale way.  

Here I think EPA could do well to notify the public, in a more user-friendly way than the Federal Register, about new products, but EPA could also make its existing information products available in a more user-friendly way (a better on-line archive system).

What thoughts to people have about aspects of these areas that work or don't work as well?

Jeremiah