Regulation through Revelation: The Origin, Politics, and Impacts of the Toxics Release Inventory Program

Information provision is increasingly being used as a regulatory tool. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program required facilities that handle threshold amounts of specific chemicals to report yearly their releases and transfers of these toxic substances. The TRI data have become the yardstick by which regulators, investors, environmental organizations, and local community groups measure company environmental performance. This books tells the story of the TRI from its origin and implementation to its revision and retrenchment. The mix of case study and quantitative analysis shows how the TRI operates and how the information provided affects decisions in both the public and private sectors. The lessons drawn about the operation of information provision programs should be of interest to multiple audiences.

• Extremely rich study of how Congress/U.S. government establish, implement, and revise environmental programs • Uses quantitative and qualitative methods • Accessible to broad audience in public policy, law, sociology, economics, and U.S. history

1. Legislating an incomplete contract; 2. Defining terms: rulemaking and the initial TRI data release; 3. Spreading the word in the public and private sectors; 4. Politics of expansion and contraction; 5. Lifecycles in the regulatory environment; 6. The impact(s) of the TRI; 7. Lessons from and for regulatory implementation.