I'm Jamie Conrad. I'm work for the American Chemistry Council, and among the panelists I apparently am the sole voice for regulated businesses. (What a responsibility.) Actually, I expect I'll primarily be speaking (writing?) on behalf of our membership. Our 190 or so members represent the leaders in the business of using chemistry to solve problems and make products. We have a big interest in environmental information, since much of it is about our members and their performance. Moreover, when you make cars, you can think of pollution as an unfortunate byproduct. It gets more challenging when the very things you make are themselves "pollutants," etc. (even though they also are useful products). We think the public should have access to relevant and timely information about environmental and related health issues, and libraries certainly have a role to play in making this information available. Our primary concerns are that the information is accurate, and that it is complete. For example, it's important to be able to get TRI information. But it's also important to know what percent of TRI chemical releases come from reporting sources (as opposed to, say, motor vehicles)-- otherwise you can't make informed decisions. I'm particularly interested in learning what sorts of information are of greatest interest to various publics. EPA did a survey along these lines -- maybe they'll release it as part of this dialogue.
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