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

This 2005 text discusses the US Toxics Release Inventory Program and its impacts as a case study of legislation.

James T. Hamilton (Author)

9780521389891, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 21 July 2011

358 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

“…everyone should applaud Hamilton's superb scholarship…Highly recommended.” –CHOICE, R.E. O'Connor, National Science Foundation

Information provision is increasingly being used as a regulatory tool. The US 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 book, which was originally published in 2005, 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.

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.

Subject Areas: Regional & area planning [RP], Environment law [LNKJ], Economics [KC], Political science & theory [JPA]