[LINK] electronic democracy in the environmental sphere

[Karin Geiselhart]

Goverment Linkers may be interested in this, another example of what electronic democracy could mean, a portalable area if ever there was one

forwarded from Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do ***

 ------------------ October 19, 2000

 ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE: A SURVEY OF THE
 STATES
 Information technology is rapidly changing the way we work, shop, and
 play. Some envision a future where it also has a profound effect on
 democracy, with governments at all levels using Internet-based technology
 to engage citizens in the democratic process.

 A new paper by researchers at Resources for the Future (RFF) says that
 state-level governments are in an early and experimental phase in applying
 the principles of electronic democracy to environmental decisionmaking.
 The paper describes an RFF survey examining how all 50 states use the
 Internet to engage citizens in environmental issues.  (The survey can be
 found at http://www.rff.org/disc_papers/PDF_files/0042.pdf .)

 RFF researchers found that while all 50 states have environmental Web
 sites that provide at least basic information, relatively few use the
 Internet for active on-line interaction between citizens and government,
 or among citizens themselves.

 States generally have embraced the notion of posting environmental laws
 and regulations on their Web sites.  Seventy percent of the states
 received a high score for the basic legal information they provide. Sixty
 percent of the states scored high for the information they provide on
 state environmental conditions; half scored high for providing easy
 on-line access to information on particular environmental problems and
 pollutants. Only 40 percent scored high marks for the information they
 provide about egulated facilities in the state, such as chemical
 companies, landfills, underground storage tanks or Superfund sites.

 Beyond simply providing information, states were evaluated for the degree
 to which their Web sites invite public involvement in the environmental
 decisionmaking process.  Only 36 percent of states received a high score
 for allowing the public to submit electronic comments on proposed
 regulations via e-mail or a Web-based form.  Interviews with state agency
 staff, however, suggest that on-line notice and comment is emerging as a
 key interactive feature in many states, and on-line input is increasingly
 being treated the same as that received through more traditional means.

 The survey is one part of a larger project at RFF to examine the impact of
 the Internet on public participation in environmental decisionmaking.  For
 more information on the RFF project on  Electronic Environmental
 Democracy: The Future of Information Technology in Participatory
 Environmental Management, go to
 http://www.rff.org/proj_summaries/99files/davies_Electronic_Environment.ht
 m.

forwarded by
Karin G