Editorial Detroit Free Press March 16, 2005
For those concerned about the environment, the high mark of government secrecy was set by Vice President Dick Cheney as he prepared the administration's energy strategy. Court action is still pending over requests to find out who participated in his 2001 task force.
The final result, of course, had all the markings of a plan prepared by oil industry lobbyists. The General Accounting Office, since renamed the General Accountability Office, succeeded in determining some of the participants, who included Kenneth Lay, then chairman of Enron Corp.
But citizens deserve more and better reporting from their government about the nation's natural resources. They are also entitled to data the government collects on their behalf. At the same time that corporate interests get unprecedented access, the average citizen sometimes has to struggle to get information crucial to evaluate public health.
Under the guise of security concerns, the burden of proof has shifted to the group seeking the information, and statistics get shielded from public view. That has included reporting from chemical plants and has extended in some places to efforts to keep the public out of decisions on everything from sewage treatment plants to releases of manufacturing byproducts into rivers.
After decades of work to create transparency on decisions that affect the air, water and public land, the trend is reversing. Too many people have too much at stake to let public policy be developed by a secret crew meeting behind closed doors. Secrecy is the bane of democracy.
For additional articles like this one, go to the Tittabawasse River Watch web site www.trwnews.net for complete coverage of the Tittabawassee River Dow Chemical dioxin contamination saga. . The Newspaper / Media page of our site contains an extensive archive of media articles dating back to January 2002. The source organization's web site link is listed to the right of the article, visit often for other news in our area. The Newspaper / Media page may be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom of the CONTENTS section and clicking on the Newspaper/Media link.