Informational Regulation

Informational regulation (IR) refers to regulation that requires that specific information be provided to affected stakeholders, which may include the general public. It is an alternative or supplement to third-party regulatory monitoring and enforcement because the assumption is that interested parties will use the disclosed information to reduce harmful activities, such as releasing hazardous wastes into the environment. IR plays a large role in the management of environmental risks and is an approach that appeals to many because it avoids command and control mechanisms, still requires some degree of corporate accountability, while the provision of information theoretically places power directly in the hands of the people affected by pollution. Examples of informational regulation include the Toxics Release Inventory, a publicly accessible database maintained by the ...