Information Disclosure and Environmental Decision Making

这个项目考察了美国有毒化学物质泄漏信息的收集和披露对当地社区和企业的影响。环境信息公开得到了公民和政策制定者的强烈支持。它也越来越被认为是环境监管的重要补充。然而，这些信息在多大程度上被传达给了公民，以及它所产生的影响尚不清楚，设计此类项目以帮助确保其有效性的最佳方式也是如此。这项研究聚焦于由美国环保局管理的联邦有毒物质释放清单，旨在提高对此类信息如何到达公民、地方政府官员和行业代表；它有什么影响；以及它如何改变环境决策方式的理解。这项研究将比较全国各地社区内的信息披露和决策，以增进对制定减少污染和改善公共健康的创新战略的最大贡献的因素的了解。具体地说，我们试图了解为什么一些公司在减少污染方面比其他公司做得更多，为什么一些社区比其他公司更鼓励这种减少污染。研究中使用的方法包括对有毒物质排放清单中的国家数据进行全面的量化分析，以及这些排放对公众健康构成的风险。还将分析有关当地社区和企业的其他技术、人口和经济信息。这些数据将来自美国人口普查局和其他联邦机构；对来自全国各地的30多个社区的行业代表、公职人员和公民进行的调查；对媒体对当地污染信息的报道的分析；以及对10个社区的行业代表、公职人员和公民的采访，以进行深入研究。这些知识对设计和实施新一代环境政策具有重要意义，新一代环境政策可以比传统的监管方法更灵活、更面向社区和更有效。特别是，它可以帮助最大限度地利用信息披露来实现环境保护和公众健康的国家目标。该奖项来自2002财年由美国国家科学基金会和美国环境保护局赞助的一项比赛--“环境政策的决策和评估”。

This project examines how the collection and disclosure of information about toxic chemical releases in the United States affects local communities and businesses. Environmental information disclosure has been strongly supported by citizens and policymakers. It is also increasingly considered to be an important supplement to environmental regulation. Yet how well such information is communicated to citizens and the effects that it has remain unclear, as does the best way to design such programs to help ensure that they will be effective. Focusing on the federal Toxics Release Inventory managed by the U.S. EPA, this research seeks to improve understanding of how such information reaches citizens, local government officials, and industry representatives; what effects it has; and how it changes the way environmental decisions are made. The study will compare information disclosure and decision making within communities across the country to improve knowledge about the factors that contribute most to development of innovative strategies to reduce pollution and improve public health. Specifically, we seek to learn why some companies do more to reduce pollution than others and why some communities encourage such pollution reduction more than others.Methods to be used in the study include a comprehensive quantitative analysis of national data from the Toxics Release Inventory and the risks that such releases pose to public health. Other technical, demographic, and economic information about local communities and businesses will be analyzed as well. Such data will come from the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies; surveys of industry representatives, public officials, and citizens in a sample of three dozen communities from around the nation; analysis of media coverage of local pollution information; and interviews with industry representatives, public officials, and citizens in ten communities to be studied in depth. Such knowledge has important implications for the design and implementation of a new generation of environmental policies that can be more flexible, community-oriented, and effective than conventional approaches to regulation. In particular, it can help to maximize the potential of using information disclosure to reach national goals for environmental protection and public health.This award emerged from a FY2002 competition, "Decision Making and Valuation for Environmental Policy," sponsored by NSF and the US Environmental Protection Agency.