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by companies to challenge EPA choices and policies. 23 Via this Act, the
growing regulation by information of many agencies is counteracted by
industry and business via regulation of information. As such it should
be interpreted as an attempt to control and set back informational
governance, by bringing it under stringent (state and elite) control.
Behind this DQA is a rather narrow and positivist idea of objectivity
and validity of information. Quality of information seems to lie in the
internal qualities of the information, irrespective of the context and the
circumstance of its application, or what Herrick ( 2004 ) calls narrative
coherence, which is a function of, among others, contextual and pro-
cedural relevance, methodological rigor and transparency. It neglects
that, especially in the Information Age, “there is no unique way to con-
struct an argument: data and evidence can be selected in a wide variety
of ways from available information [ . . . ] there is nothing intrinsically
reprehensible in selecting a particular combination of data, facts, val-
ues, and analytical methods that seems to be the most appropriate
to convince people who have to carry out (or support a) decision”
(Majone, 1989 ). In that sense, the DQA is in line with (or tries to get
back to) the conventional idea of science, one that belonged to an era
of simple modernity, whereas there is growing consensus among social
scientists that science and information have lost their undisputable
position and reputation. But such an emphasis on positivist science
and the objectivity of data and information also can be found in Esty's
project of data-driven regulation. Esty ( 2001a ; 2001b ; 2004 ) has -
among other things - a similar emphasis or more and better data and
information to improve the quality of regulation and decision making.
However, what distinguishes the Data Quality Act and its propo-
nents from the data-driven regulation analysis is that the former falls
in a wider development in particularly the United States, characterised
by calls for sound science in a green backlash (see also McCright and
Dunlap, 2000 ; 2003 ). The use of climate science for the official U.S.
position on international climate negotiations have been widely stud-
ied. Another less well-known example is the EPA-sponsored study on
Science at EPA: Information in the Regulatory process (Powell, 1999 ).
23
See the Web site of OMB Watch (http://www.ombwatch.org) and especially the
part on EPA policies and decisions. Interestingly, OMB Watch also keeps track
of the consequences of 9/11 for (environmental) information disclosure
(http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/213/1/1#EPA).
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