LOOKING FORWARD

      Government authorities should consider the optimal means for delivering information to as many people as possible. This means focusing on people of different ages, geographic regions, races, incomes, cultures, education levels, and languages. As web-based technologies become more common, information will need to be made available in a user-friendly way, creating opportunities for citizens to express opinions, file complaints, participate in review and comment periods, and offer feedback. It will also be important to work to develop low cost means to ensure that as many people and communities as possible have access to the Internet, whether it is in their homes, work places, libraries, or community centers. Finally, information should be available in all key languages to ensure that minority populations have equal access to information, public participation, and justice.
      More attention needs to focus on experiences in promoting public involvement at the state and local levels, including ways for the public to be involved with designing and implementing programs and policies. At the same time, the federal government should encourage states to adopt strong citizen suit provisions into their statutory codes.
      Integration of environmental, economic, public health, and social data sets are key to sustainable development. The lack of integration within the United States is a major impediment for citizens and organizations that are attempting to access, research, and draw important links between data housed in different agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency should build on earlier work to support integrating environmental data sets on the basis of facilities, products, and geographic areas.
      Some of the underlying concerns on access are due to the lack of any U.S. constitutional guarantee to a clean environment, access to information, public participation, or access to justice. Currently, the most relevant U.S. constitutional provisions relate to freedom of speech, press, and association in the First Amendment. These, however, tend to protect citizens from overreaching government control, rather than to requiring the government to affirmatively provide public access. Because of the lack of a specific constitutional right, decisions made about information, participation, and the environment may be vulnerable to the politics of the day.
      It is unlikely that any action will be taken to amend the Constitution in the near future. This reiterates the need for strong public involvement provisions within federal, state, and local statutes, regulations, and ordinances in the United States. However, with constantly changing political environments, these provisions and initiatives will continue to be subject to different interpretations by new administrations or repeal by subsequent Congresses. Unforeseen international and domestic events, such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, require quick decisions by policy-makers. There must be a strong foundation and acceptance of access to information, public participation, and access to justice to ensure that these decisions are in the best interest of the public and do not unduly infringe on basic access rights. Also, due to the trend of US courts to restrict public access to courts, in the long-term, a constitutional amendment may be necessary in the long-term to remedy separation-of-powers and states-rights concerns and ensure access to justice.
      Following September 11, there is a clear need to examine our laws, institutions, and practices governing public right to know. Enhanced public access to information and participation should be encouraged to engage the public in identifying ways to make our nation’s critical infrastructure more resilient to terrorist attacks and accidents. This participation should be institutionalized into all environmental statutes, regulations, and policies at the federal, state, and local levels for continued effectiveness in the future.
      At the international level, the United States has played an important role in promoting public access to information, participation, and justice. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), it has provided significant funding to support democracy and governance generally and in the environmental context. The United States has also provided critical political and financial support to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which promotes public access in North America. The United States has provided some technical advice in the negotiations of a Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Protocol to the Aarhus Convention, however, the lack of a formal U.S. negotiating mandate and the fact that the United States is not a signatory or party to the Convention are threatening the future participation of the United States in the PRTR Protocol negotiations.
      In the development of international norms on public participation, the leadership of the United States is much more ambiguous. Although the United States has promoted public participation, it failed to engage effectively in the negotiation of the Aarhus Convention, refused to sign it, and continues to distance itself without a principled or clearly articulated basis for doing so. Similarly, while the United States promoted good governance, transparency, participation, and rule of law in the preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it has persistently objected to any specific, concrete steps to promote access principles, such as the development of global non-binding guidelines on public involvement.

Plans for Future Application of the Access Initiative in the United States The U.S. Access Initiative team is committed to expanding the campaign for access rights in the United States. The campaign will seek to: Update the U.S. Access Initiative Report in 2003 Expand state coverage and participation by NGOs to 2-3 additional states, including Arizona, Indiana and Oregon Benchmark public participation in the joint state and federal CALFED Bay-Delta Program Hold a workshop on environmental justice priorities for establishing Total Maximum Daily Load processes under the Federal Clean Water Act Recruit the State of California and possibly other state governments into the Partnership for Principle 10 (www.pp10.org). For further information, please contact:     Carl Bruch, ELI, +1-202-939-3240; bruch@eli.org       Michael Stanley-Jones, SVTC, +1-408-287-6707; msjones@svtc.org       Simona Vaclavikova, OCA, +1-614-263-4111, svaclavikova@ohiocitizen.org Hard copies of the full U.S. report are available upon request at svaclavikova@ohiocitizen.org, or msjones@svtc.org. In Search of Progress may be downloaded electronically at http://www.svtc.org.