Environmental Protection Agency moves to scrap greenhouse gas reporting for major polluters

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to end emissions reporting, but critics warn it may lead to a climate data blackout. Photo / The Washington Post

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating a requirement that businesses report their greenhouse gas emissions, ending a programme that has tracked the climate impact of major polluters since 2010.

The programme has required more than 8000 facilities to report their emissions annually, including major oil refineries and power plants. Businesses that are not major emitters were not required to report.

“The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Programme is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement on Saturday.

The EPA under US President Donald Trump has sought to roll back roughly three dozen environmental regulations, primarily implemented by the Biden and Obama administrations, in what Zeldin has hailed as the most significant act of deregulation in American history.

Congress mandated emissions reporting in 2008, with the Obama administration launching the programme two years later.

The EPA said in a statement that ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Programme would save American businesses up to US$2.4 billion ($4b) in regulatory costs. Under the EPA’s narrower interpretation of Clean Air Act requirements, some oil and natural gas facilities would still need to report their emissions starting in 2034.

Environmental advocates say data on emissions from businesses is essential to tracking progress towards climate targets and effectively instituting regulations to tackle global warming.

“Some industries want to keep this secret so that the public can’t know who’s responsible and hold them to account,” said David Doniger, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defence Council. “What the public doesn’t know, they can’t demand be regulated.”

Kenny Stein, vice-president of policy for the conservative Institute for Energy Research, said he opposed the programme exactly because it could open up industry to further regulation.

“This isn’t just trying to get information. It’s to have a menu or a hit list basically for the next stage, whatever your next regulation, whatever your next activist action is, for companies to be targeted for having reported greenhouse gas emissions that are too high,” Stein said.

The proposed rule will be open to public comment and potential revision before being finalised by the EPA.

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