Christopher Schuler, christopher.schuler@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency released a proposal that would effectively eliminate the agency’s longstanding tool to track greenhouse gas emissions, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. First adopted in 2009, the GHGRP has provided critical information on climate-disrupting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, covering large sources in more than 40 different industrial categories. Data generated through the program is used not only to assist federal and state officials, but also stakeholder groups, affected communities, researchers, and more.
The program—fully authorized under the Clean Air Act—imposes minimal burdens on companies, requiring only that affected sources measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions to EPA, and only applies to sources that emit more than 25,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide or its equivalent. The program has been a vital source of data for EPA’s Inventory on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, an annual report that the United States government must submit to the United Nations according to international treaty.
The proposed elimination of the program is the latest in a series of actions by EPA to systematically dismantle, delay, or undermine the many climate and clean air standards that safeguard the health and wellbeing of families and communities. These include proposals to disavow EPA’s authority to control greenhouse gases and gut federal vehicle emission standards; draft rules that eliminate strengthened protections against mercury and ozone-forming compounds, delay badly-needed methane standards for oil and gas equipment; and handouts to dozens of coal-fired power plants that allow them to avoid Biden-era limits on air toxics.
In response, Sierra Club’s Director of Climate Policy and Advocacy, Patrick Drupp, released the following statement:
“EPA cannot avoid the climate crisis by simply burying its head in the sand as it baselessly cuts off its main source of greenhouse gas emissions data. The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program has been a major success for more than 15 years, providing incredibly useful emission data without any real drawbacks to affected companies. The agency has provided no defensible reason to cancel the program; this is nothing more than EPA’s latest action to deny the reality of climate change and do everything it can to put the fossil fuel industry and corporate polluters before people. The Sierra Club will oppose this proposal every step of the way.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.