As the Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Environmental Plan for the U.S.-Mexico Border Area and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were being drafted in the early 1990s, Arizona Toxics Information lobbied and organized grassroots groups on both sides of the border to share information and rally for a multitude of environmental commitments in the agreements.
The state routinely receives an "F" grade for executive and legislative accountability, public access to information, lobbying and campaign finance disclosure, and ethics enforcement management.
The government is keen, at least in theory, to make available much of the data that it holds, for the perusal and analysis of "armchair auditors" and enthusiastic nerds (see article).Britain's small but vocal freedom-of-information lobby has given the plans a cautious welcome.
"It's much more important to get rid of delays than to extend or strengthen the act," says Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, a lobby group.
The company used that false information to lobby state legislators to change Empire's status as the only insurer required to offer coverage to all who could pay, including high-risk customers.
"The sooner they can get the sale process started, the better it will be for Satyam's customers and employees," said Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of information technology lobby group National Association of Software and Services Companies.
Most tellingly, documents recently uncovered by Environmental Working Group show that industry representatives allowed access to drafts of the state's permit plans, and used that information to lobby hard against testing for radioactivity in wastewater, for example.
Moreover, donor agencies are influenced in their domestic settings by NGOs, companies and other actors that provide information or lobby intensely for particular policy issues and reforms to be prioritised in foreign aid activities.
Local groups are also able to use this information to lobby municipal officials and politicians in order to improve the quality of service provision in their areas and to make more land for housing accessible [ 10].
They urge the Commission to make all information on lobby influence available free of charge, comprehensible and fully accessible to the public through one centralised online database.
