The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is opening the doors on a new, more interactive, and task-oriented website designed to meet users' needs.

EPA heard from its audience and they are interested in more than just reading about EPA programs on the web. Citizens want to participate in protecting the environment in which they live and work. People want an active voice in what happens at EPA. They want to find topics of interest to them quickly.

"EPA has heard the voice of the people loud and clear! We're going to do everything possible to make participating in environmental protection a reality," said Molly O'Neill, EPA's Chief Information Officer and assistant administrator for the Office of Environmental Information. "We're using Web 2.0 technologies to give citizens a Web site that is more interactive, uses multimedia tools, and is better organized by what they want to do or know."

The new design includes: links to immediate actions people can take to protect the environment at home or in their community: How can I make my home more energy-efficient? What and where can I recycle? How do I learn about environmental conditions in my community? What can my community do to help to prevent pollution?

Interactive media like blogs so people can: Post comments to our blog "Greenversations;” Comment on proposed regulations; Bookmark EPA pages with Digg It.

Web 2.0 Tools to inform people on EPA activities: RSS news feeds to provide information to subscribers, videos and podcasts, widgets to put EPA information on their website.

Take YOUR new website out for a "test drive." And use the EPA blog to let EPA know how it runs.

9/12/2008