EPA plans to torpedo GHG reporting rule

In another strike against US climate policy, Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin announced on Friday afternoon that the agency is proposing to end the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP).

This program, stemming from a law signed in 2007 by President George W. Bush, requires that all facilities in the US annually report greenhouse gas emissions above a certain threshold so that scientists and lawmakers have accurate data with which to predict future climate and enact appropriate policy to mitigate any dangers. If the EPA’s proposal is finalized, the agency says, “most large facilities, all fuel and industrial gas suppliers, and CO2 [sic] injection sites” would no longer have to report their emissions.

The proposed rule would require that only the oil and natural gas industry continue to report GHG emissions, as this is specifically required by the Clean Air Act (PDF). However, as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by President Donald J. Trump in July, the Clean Air Act now says that the oil and natural gas industry doesn’t need to report its emissions again until 2034.

Criticisms of EPA’s move came quickly.

“Cutting the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program blinds Americans to the facts about climate pollution,” Joseph Goffman, a former assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the EPA, says in a statement. “Without it, policymakers, businesses, and communities cannot make sound decisions about how to cut emissions and protect public health.”

Goffman further notes that “by hiding this information from the public, Administrator Zeldin is denying Americans the ability to see the damaging results of his actions on climate pollution, air quality, and public health.”

According to the EPA’s news release, the GHGRP “has no material impact on improving human health and the environment.” Zeldin says in the release that the program doesn’t improve air quality and “is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape.”

The proposal is part of a wider effort by the agency to roll back regulations and spending on climate change and other areas.

By 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that direct health costs from climate change will be between $2 billion and $4 billion per year. In addition, the WHO projects that climate change will cause about 250,000 additional deaths a year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress.

According to the publicly available GHGRP data for 2023, the latest available, power plants in the US emitted 1,471.5 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e). The chemical industry emitted 181.2 million tCO2e, and the oil and natural gas industry emitted 322 million tCO2e. According to the European Commission’s Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research, the total US greenhouse gas emissions for 2023 were 5,960.80 million tCO2e, which was 11.25% of the global total.

The proposed rule will be open for public comment for 47 days after it’s published in the Federal Register, and the EPA will hold an online public hearing on the proposal 15 days after publication in the Federal Register.