The disclosureand dissemination of meaningful data to enable the populace to makeinformed decisions has long been considered a cornerstone of democracysee, e.g., , pp.â??. However, two major problems often arise in the provision ofthis information. On the one hand, those that should be providingcritical information may choose not to make it available. To remedythis problem, regulators may require disclosure. In the United States,for example, the Securities Act of and the Securities Exchange Actof both have requirements with regard to financial informationdisclosure by corporations see, ,pp. â??. On the other hand, it is often necessary for users to siftthrough masses of information to discover some semblance of meaningfuldata. Indeed, some information disclosures may be made in an attempt tooffset or mitigate the potentially negative impact of requireddisclosures. In a sense, the interaction of these problems can beviewed as an abundance of bad data overwhelming the good.Unfortunately, the disclosure, and thus the potential use, ofenvironmental information appears to suffer from these problems.As noted by , p. , corporate environmental reporting takes place under a largely voluntary regime.A number of studies over the past two decades indicate that theemphasis of financial report environmental disclosures is on providinginformation that portrays the firms in a positive environmental light.Other research e.g., further indicates that the extent of environmental disclosure is notassociated with actual environmental performance. And even thoughrecent studies e.g., provide evidence that the market appears to reward companies for higherenvironmental disclosure, at least in periods of regulatory threat,there has been little or no concern expressed in the mainstreamaccounting research journals with the apparent use of financial reportenvironmental disclosure to manipulate public or at least marketperceptions. Perhaps this is due to a belief that such manipulationdoes not create any real harm. This study suggests otherwise.Thisinvestigation examines the extent to which pollution performanceinformation available through the Environmental Protection Agencyâ??sEPA Toxics Release Inventory TRI program influenced marketreactions to President George Bushâ??s proposal for substantialchanges in the Clean Air Act., The results, based on a sample of firms, indicate that companieswith worse pollution performance suffered more negative marketreactions than firms with lower releases. However, results alsoindicate voluntary financial report environmental disclosure appears tomitigate the negative impacts of actual performance information. Thissuggests that if concern about environmental degradation is importantsee, e.g., ,environmental reporting under a largely voluntary regime is notadequate. This study begins with more detailed information on the TRIprogram.