Stephanie Zimmerling, MASc Mining Engineering // April 6, 2015
The United Stated has only recently (2014) become a candidate country with the EITI. The Multi-Stakeholder Group is required to produce their first report for 2014 by July 1, 2015 (EITI, n.d.). In anticipation of this report, the U.S.’s Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue has launched an open data website, which tracks the revenue received by government for coal, natural gas and oil extracted from public lands. The portal can be found here: https://useiti.doi.gov/. It is an example of easily accessible information distribution for the citizens of the United States. At the launch of the portal US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewels said (EITI, 2014):
“This interactive data portal offers a wealth of information to the public in a comprehensive and accessible fashion and is another step in our efforts to reform and modernize royalty revenue management by the Department. This new tool provides clarity and transparency on the revenues generated by energy development on public lands and waters – a significant source of financial support for local communities, states, tribes and the nation – and the Department’s implementation of USEITI upholds President Obama’s commitment to the principles of open government.”
The portal will gather information on how revenue is generated from resources on federal lands and show where that revenue is distributed. While the portal provides a high level overview, filters can also be applied to many of the data sets to sort by timeframe, location, commodity, company and revenue type.
The Head of the EITI Secretariat, Jonas Moberg, has expressed he is very impressed by the portal (EITI, 2014):
“The information generated by the EITI is much more useful when it can be easily accessed and understood. A growing number of EITI countries are making their data available in online portals. The US data portal is one of the most impressive examples to date, and we hope it will inspire other countries to follow the US example.”
With many other EITI countries wanting to engage civil society and citizens with EITI and its benefits, the online portal is great idea. If operating in a country where a large part of society has access to the internet, a portal set-up is an effective means of distributing relevant information. The US portal is made available under and ‘open-source license’ as shown here: https://github.com/18F/doi-extractives-data. This allows opportunities to replicate and build on the existing work.
Make sure to check it out!
Sources
EITI. (2014, December 12). US EITI launches natural resource revenues portal. Retrieved from EITI: https://eiti.org/news/us-eiti-launches-natural-resource-revenues-portal
EITI. (n.d.). United States of America. Retrieved from Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative: https://eiti.org/united-states-america