The Environmental Protection Agency plans to end a federal reporting rule that tracks the quantities of greenhouse gases like methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide released into the air by industrial facilities, according to an agency news release.
Ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which has been in place since 2009, would affect over 8,000 facilities, including power plants, electronic, chemical and mineral processing facilities and oil refineries.
The program’s data are used to guide federal policy, and the data also help companies demonstrate they’re hitting emissions-cutting benchmarks for the public, shareholders and investors.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in the release that the plan would save American businesses as much as $2.4 billion in regulatory costs but would still comply with the Clean Air Act. He first raised the idea of ending the reporting program in March.
“Unlike other mandatory information collections under the CAA, the GHGRP is not directly related to a potential regulation and has no material impact on improving human health and the environment,” Zeldin said in the release.
He said it would be “a significant step toward streamlining operations, cutting unnecessary red tape, unleashing American energy, and advancing EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
Certain fossil fuel facilities would be required to keep reporting emissions if the rule is ended, including some natural gas and offshore oil facilities, under the Inflation Reduction Act, enacted during the Biden administration. The EPA has proposed a delay of nearly a decade in implementing the data collection requirement, though, putting it off until 2034.
But environmental experts say ending the program would prevent the public from knowing how much major industrial polluters are emitting into the atmosphere.
“Cutting the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program blinds Americans to the facts about climate pollution. Without it, policymakers, businesses, and communities cannot make sound decisions about how to cut emissions and protect public health,” said Joseph Goffman, who served as assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation during the Biden administration, in a statement.
Groffman now works with the Environmental Protection Network, a volunteer organization of former EPA employees.
Health experts are also concerned that ending the program could jeopardize public health.
“Measuring and reporting climate pollution is a critical step in reducing the deadly impacts of climate-driven extremes that cause more pollution, catastrophic weather events, health emergencies, and deaths. Ignoring this reality is a deadly choice, and not one that EPA should be making for American families,” Will Barrett of the American Lung Association said in a statement.
Ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts to cut support for climate research and will make it more difficult to produce studies on the economic and societal impact of greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA will solicit input on the plan to end the greenhouse gas reporting program in a public comment period before it’s finalized.
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