EPA to stop collecting greenhouse gas emissions data from big polluters
Reprinted from E&E News by Politico
EPA is proposing to end its long-standing greenhouse gas reporting requirements for the nation’s top emitters.
The agency released a draft rule Friday that’s broader than regulatory analysts had anticipated. It would not only permanently remove reporting requirements for major emitters outside the oil and gas sector, like power plants and iron and steel facilities, but also suspend reporting mandates for petroleum companies until 2034.
The Inflation Reduction Act created reporting requirements for major oil and gas operators that are subject to fees on excess methane emissions. But President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill this year delayed collection of the so-called Waste Emissions Charge until 2034, and EPA argued in a press release Friday that Trump’s law permitted it to propose suspending the reporting requirement for climate pollution until that year as well.
EPA told POLITICO’s E&E News that it still plans to propose revisions in July 2026 to reporting methodologies for emitters under subpart W of the Inflation Reduction Act — which covers onshore and offshore oil and gas development, processing, transmission, storage, and export activities.
The Friday proposal would exempt about 8,000 entities in a wide array of sectors from reporting their emissions if they exceed 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in a given year. EPA said in its press release that the proposal would save $2.4 billion in compliance costs by canceling a program that is not tied to any regulations and thus “has no material impact on improving human health and the environment.”
“The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.
The agency heard from several industry groups prior to releasing the draft who argued that the reporting program benefited them by compiling comprehensive, methodologically sound data across key industries.
Carbon capture and storage developers are among them. Treasury Department rules for tax credits benefiting the industry utilize EPA data drawn from the reporting program to determine eligibility.
“This announcement from EPA will not advance carbon storage — something Administrator Zeldin has publicly supported,” said Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition. “By canceling parts of the [Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program] that are linked to the election of the 45Q tax credit, this proposed rule endangers millions of dollars in investments from American businesses in these technologies.”
Joe Goffman, who led the EPA Office of Air and Radiation in the Biden administration, said it would take years to rebuild the emissions reporting program and database if EPA mothballs it. That would set climate policy back in future administrations, he said, because good data is needed to inform regulations.
“This administration is sort of the Baskin-Robbins of climate policy destruction,” he said in an interview prior to the proposal’s release. “Every day there’s a new flavor of the day. One day it’s the power plant repeal flavor. The next day it’s the car and truck emissions repeal flavor. And the next day after that, it’s the endangerment finding withdrawal flavor.
“Today’s is proposing to shut down … or heavily curtail the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program,” Goffman said.
The rule revision will be published in the Federal register and the public will have 47 days to comment. The EPA’s summary is HERE.