US to Stop Reporting Majority of Climate Emissions
The federal agency responsible for protecting the environment in the United States will stop requiring most polluters to report their emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The upcoming policy shift by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), first reported by ProPublica on Thursday, will effectively render the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, and largest historical emitter, blind to the pollution caused by its factories, fossil fuel industry and chemical plants.
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, a publicly accessible database tracking US emissions since 2010, is widely used by lawmakers across the country to make policy decisions on health and environmental considerations of polluting facilities in local communities and to hold companies accountable for damages. The program currently tracks an estimated 90% of US emissions. Documents reviewed by ProPublica state the agency will cut reporting requirements for 40 out of 41 sectors currently required to submit emissions data. The single sector that will remain under reporting obligations is known as Subpart W, which covers facilities involved in onshore and offshore production, processing, transmission, storage, and distribution of oil and natural gas products.
Only 2,300 of the 8,000 facilities currently required to report emissions will still be subject to the reporting requirements after the rule change. The rollback will make public scrutiny of heavy polluters more difficult, as emissions that are not tracked cannot be regulated. It is likely to primarily benefit the petrochemical and energy-intensive manufacturing industries, such as cement, glass, iron and steel, by reducing compliance costs.
The program is also the source of a vast majority of the data submitted by the US to the United Nations on its emissions trajectory required under the Paris climate agreement, which Trump exited on his first day in office. The move comes as countries around the world try to move in the opposite direction and reduce emissions as weather threats intensified by climate change drive increasingly severe floods, storms and droughts globally. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement joined the United States to Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries out of nearly 200 on the planet that are not part of the accord.
https://healthpolicy-watch.news/us-to-stop-reporting-majority-of-climate-emissions/