Environmental state and information politics - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 140

work for product-specific disclosure programs, such as those related
to labelling and product information.
It should not be too surprising that the landmark disclosure pro-
grams on pollutant releases have their own flaws and criticism. For
instance, the TRI has been criticised for the fact that it neglected sources
that significantly contribute to pollutants: mobile sources and small
business (Graham, 2001 ). TRI also did not require factories to provide
data on human exposure to chemical toxicity (only data on kilograms
of emissions). Finally, the TRI reporting was based on a variety of
estimating techniques and it was often more than a year old before
the information was released. Several of these points were taken up by
NGOs in launching the Web site Scorecard (see Chapter 5 ). A more fun-
damental point is that these Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
are still very much based on natural-science information. Communi-
ties, environmental NGOs, social scientists and even state authorities
also organise nonnatural science-based monitoring and information
disclosure programs, focusing on preferences, lay actor experiences
and sensory information of citizens, consumers and more specific seg-
ments of society (cf. railway travellers, nature hikers, solar energy-
producing households). With the disclosure of this type on nonnatural
science environmental information, one could imagine further - and
new - mobilisation of public opinion, pressure on state agencies and
polluters and setting of new agendas for environmental reform.
Data-driven regulation
Recently, Daniel Esty ( 2001a ; 2000b ; 2004 ; Esty and Rushing, 2006 )
has further worked on the changes in state environmental regulation
through information, towards what he labels data-driven policy mak-
ing. It is especially data shortage and data quality that has hampered
adequate and high-quality environmental policy making for a long
time. Especially through the technological breakthroughs of computer
is all before the U.S. environmental movement got involved in TRI via its
Scorecard Web site in 1998. Konar and Cohen ( 1997 ) reported clear effects on
the stock price of TRI data disclosure. Hamilton ( 2005 ) reports on more recent
empirical research in TRI. Edwards ( 2006 ) reports on case study research in
the city of Cleveland (USA), where environmental NGOs played a major role
in the environmental information structure and the modernisation of public
administration towards a more citizen-centred mode of environmental
governance.