Newness and the New EPA Office of Environmental Information

[Fred Stoss <fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

The new EPA Office of Environmental Information has the POTENTIAL 
to address many of the suggestions in this dialogue, accept new
challenges, and create an entirely new approach for providing
environmental data and information to researchers, policy makers,
educators, students, officials and administrators, managers, and 
"concerned" citizens.

To do this it HAS to break away from many of the old bureaucratic 
mindsets of thinking about service, what are the information 
needs of its users, how to deliver what the user wants (not what 
the EPA thinks they want or what the EPA says this is all they 
are going to get).

This Office is just a year old. It was created late in a 
political term, still needs key leadership positions to be 
filled. We need to give this new Information Office a good honey
moon period and let's see what it can do.

IF it is staffed properly
IF it is managed properly
IF it is funded adequately
IF it is allowed to provide funds generously
IF it can be trusted to provide those critical 3 Es of
  efficiency, ecnomy, and equity

The Office of Environmental Information has great potential. 
Let's hope they take advantage of their mandates and make it so.

Fred Stoss
University at Buffalo