EPA Inspector General Releases Report On Need For Better Data For PGCCA

On September 15, 2015, the EPA Inspector General (IG) released a report criticizing EPA's use of unverified pollution prevention data for the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (PGCCA). The report, "EPA's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program Lacks Adequate Support and Transparency and Should Be Assessed for Continuation," states that EPA does not verify the validity of the self-reported pollution prevention results of award applicants or differentiate between domestic and international pollution prevention. The IG states that self-reported data risk misrepresenting the true accomplishments and impacts of the award winners and that EPA should not use the self-reported data in its pollution prevention performance metrics until it is able to ensure data quality. In a September 16 story on the IG's report, Bloomberg BNA reported that "EPA's chemical safety and pollution prevention office agreed with three of the inspector's recommendations including developing a process to track the long-term benefits of the innovations it recognizes. The office disagreed with the remaining six recommendations and provided examples of ways it said it already is meeting some of the report's goals, such as integrating the award program's activities to other pollution-prevention actions."