EPA Gets a "D" Grade on Information Access from Watchdog Group

A nonprofit watchdog group gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a D grade for openness. Surprisingly, that was worse than the Justice Department (which got a C). Still, the Defense and State Departments did worse (D-minus and F, respectively).

The scores came from the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch), which now awards the scores annually. Much of the score is based on the agency's performance under the Freedom of Information Act.

EPA was one of the few agencies whose grade actually went down since 2014. Like most other agencies, it had not updated its openness rules since the FOIA reform legislation of 2007 (the last time EPA updated its rules was in 2002).

To its credit, though, EPA was one of the top performers with its informative and interactive FOIA website, garnering an A-minus grade. EPA got a middling score for how well it processed FOIA requests.

• "Making the Grade: Access to Information Scorecard 2015," Center for Effective Government, March 19, 2015, by Sean Moulton, Gavin Baker, et al.
• "Judge Chastises EPA for FOIA Failures," McClatchy Washington Bureau, March 2, 2015, by Michael Doyle.