The Environmental Protection Agency last week launched its much-awaited database reporting on the greenhouse gas emissions of major power plants. You can go to ghgdata.epa.gov and find out how many tons of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases are being put out by facilities in your community or state.

It’s a major advance for transparency on greenhouse emissions, and analysts and activists will have a field day with the data. But will it really help the public move forward on making energy decisions?

A lot of people, particularly in the scientific community, believe more and better information means more and better decisions. Whether that actually works out in practice, however, depends on how that information fits into the broader