Dive Brief:
- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Friday that the agency will propose a rule to eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, or GHGRP, which requires over 8,000 companies and entities to calculate and annually report their greenhouse gas emissions for 47 source categories.
- The agency estimated that the rule would save U.S. companies “up to $2.4 billion” in regulatory costs, according to the announcement. EPA said in a fact sheet that if the proposal is finalized, companies would not have to submit reports with 2025 data.
- Zeldin previously telegraphed Friday’s proposal in the spring, when EPA announced a spate of climate and environmental rules it was planning to reconsider during a “day of deregulation” at the agency. Repealing the GHG Reporting Program could hurt the carbon capture industry and remove data that cities rely on to hold polluters accountable.
Dive Insight:
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program was established in 2009, after Congress mandated a GHG reporting rule in response to the appropriations act for the 2008 fiscal year, according to EPA. The program currently applies to certain large industrial facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent, as well as carbon dioxide injection sites and fuel and industrial gas suppliers, according to a March fact sheet.
EPA is proposing to rescind the GHGRP in accordance with executive orders President Donald Trump issued on his first day back in office. The agency said it plans to maintain its statutory obligations under the Clean Air Act, but claimed in the release that the GHGRP “is not directly related to a potential regulation and has no material impact on improving human health and the environment,” unlike other mandatory data collection programs under the CAA.
Zeldin said in the Sept. 12 announcement that the program “costs American businesses and manufacturing billions of dollars, driving up the cost of living, jeopardizing our nation’s prosperity and hurting American communities.”
The substance of the proposed rule would be an amendment to the program that removes “program obligations for most source categories,” according to the rule released for public inspection on Monday. The proposal, which would remove reporting requirements for carbon dioxide injection sites, “most large facilities” and all suppliers of fuel and industrial gas, will be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
The proposed rule would remove 46 of the 47 greenhouse gas source categories from the program. The agency would leave emissions reporting requirements for companies subject to the waste emissions charge, a methane emissions fee established by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. But, the recent Congressional Republican budget bill will delay data collection under that subsection for petroleum and natural gas systems — required to report under the CAA — until it reports on calendar year 2034.
The proposal to rescind most of the GHGRP’s requirements comes after EPA announced a plan to revoke the “endangerment finding.” The finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health underpins regulations that look to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas, power and automotive sectors. The move to undo the finding — also previewed during the agency’s “day of deregulation” — was announced in July, but is expected to face “significant legal pushback that could derail implementation,” according to research firm Captstone.
