The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invited the public to participate in a week of online dialogue to develop ideas to improve access to environmental information.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced May 21 that it is eliminating the only program that tracks pesticide use in the United States. The USDA claimed it can no longer afford the program, known as the Agricultural Chemical Usage Reports. Consumers, environmental organizations, scientists, and farmers oppose the move.

Responding to congressional demands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is re-opening libraries that the agency closed over the past several years. However, it appears that the content of the libraries will be more limited, and the facilities will be subject to stricter central supervision, raising concerns from critics about the role politics will play.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the 2006 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data on Feb. 21. This is the fastest data release in the history of the program, although it still constitutes more than a year of lag time from the period the data refers to, and it still takes four months longer than Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory. The 2006 data, which marks the first year that facilities are allowed to stop detailed reporting on chemical waste of less than 5,000 pounds, indicates that nationwide, 4.25 billion pounds of toxic pollution were released, which was a two percent decrease from 2005.