The EPA today changed its rules for companies that must report the toxic releases of chemicals. According to the Center for American Progress, the EPA has reduced the amount of information that companies must provide through the Toxin Release Inventory program.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will allow companies to use shorter, less informative reporting forms for small quantities of persistent bio-accumulative toxins that are dangerous even at very low levels, as well as releases of other TRI chemicals up to 2,000 pounds.

Corporations and consumers have a right to know the environmental practices of the companies that they do business with, and that is why many companies today prepare sustainability reports. This information should be public, and that disclosure policy has been working.

From the first reporting year in 1988 to 2004, releases of toxic chemicals subject to TRI dropped by a remarkable 57 percent...

If you believe in a free market, than the information about how a company interacts with the environment needs to be freely available as well so we can all make informed decisions. This is a step backward.