[en] An important part of the process of assessing the environmental impacts of coal-fired energy development in the Southwest is the transfer of information between electric utilities, federal agencies, and the interested public. There are, however, several problems associated with the transfer of information among the different groups. The acquisition of factual material on power projects by the interested public, for example, is adversely affected by the sufficiency, convenience, and credibility of present sources. Efforts of electric utilities and federal agencies to effectively communicate impact information are hindered by the inability of existing sources to selectively transfer information and to rapidly transmit information on the cumulative impacts of many combinations of power plants. This research concerns the development and evaluation of a computerized information system designed to selectively transfer information on both the cumulative and individual impacts of several electric generating facilities located in the southwestern United States. The information system incorporates features of management information systems, environmental information systems, and an issue-oriented system developed at The University of Illinois, making it a hybrid system capable of communicating impact information derived from a variety of sources