EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program “burdensome” and unhelpful to improving human health and the environment.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed doing away with a program that has required large, mostly industrial polluters to report their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to the government.
The program requires refineries, power plants, oil wells and landfills to report their emissions without risk of penalty as officials seek to identify high-polluting facilities and develop policies to lower emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Experts say the reporting held the companies publicly accountable for their emissions.
Since the program began in 2009, U.S. industry has collectively reported a 20% drop in carbon emissions, mostly driven by the closure of coal-fired power plants.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program “burdensome” and unhelpful to improving human health and the environment.
Removing the rule would save American businesses up to $2.4 billion in regulatory costs over 10 years while maintaining the agency’s statutory obligations under the Clean Air Act, Zeldin said. If finalized, the proposal would remove reporting obligations for most large industrial facilities in the United States, as well as fuel and industrial gas suppliers and carbon dioxide injection sites.
