BLM Fracking Rule Violates New Executive Order on Open Data by Sofia Plagakis.
From the post:
Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its revised proposed rule for natural gas drilling (commonly referred to as fracking) on federal and tribal lands. The much-anticipated rule violates President Obama’s recently issued executive order that requires new government information to be made available to the public in open, machine-readable formats.
Last week, President Obama signed an executive order requiring that all newly generated public data be pushed out in open, machine-readable formats. Concurrently, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released an Open Data Policy designed to make previously unavailable government data accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and the public.
The executive order and accompanying policy must have been in development for months, and agencies, including BLM, should have been fully aware of the new policy. But instead of establishing a modern example of government information collection and sharing, BLM’s proposed rule would allow drilling companies to report the chemicals used in fracking to a third-party, industry-funded website, called FracFocus.org, which does not provide data in machine-readable formats. FracFocus.org only allows users to download PDF files of reports on fracked wells. Because PDF files are not machine-readable, the site makes it very difficult for the public to use and analyze data on wells and chemicals that the government requires companies to collect and make available.
I wonder if Sofia simply overlooked:
When implementing the Open Data Policy, agencies shall incorporate a full analysis of privacy, confidentiality, and security risks into each stage of the information lifecycle to identify information that should not be released. These review processes should be overseen by the senior agency official for privacy. It is vital that agencies not release information if doing so would violate any law or policy, or jeopardize privacy, confidentiality, or national security. [From “We won’t get fooled again…”]
Or if her “…requires new government information to be made available to the public in open, machine-readable formats” is wishful thinking?
The Obama just released the Benghazi emails in PDF format. So we have an example of the Whitehouse violating its own “open data” policy.
We don’t need more “open data.”
What we need are more leakers. A lot more leakers.
Just be sure you leak or pass on leaks in “open, machine-readable formats.”
The foreign adventures, environmental pollution, failures in drug or food safety, etc., avoided by leaks may save your life, the lives of your children or grandchildren.
Leak today!
[…] Open Data and Wishful Thinking Another Word for it. BLM issues rule for fracking data storage. Private industry website, check. Proprietary PDF, check. […]
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