The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward with a proposal to scale back its greenhouse gas reporting program, a system that has collected emissions data from major industrial facilities for more than 15 years. The agency argues the change could save businesses about $24 million a year by reducing regulatory requirements.
“The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in a press release. “Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing billions of dollars, driving up the cost of living, jeopardizing our nation’s prosperity and hurting American communities.”
Environmental researchers warn that ending the program could come at a cost. The data has been used not only by policymakers to regulate emissions, but also by scientists to track long-term trends and project future scenarios.
Dr. Daisuke Minakata, who is an Associate Professor in the Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering department at MTU emphasised the importance of this project. “The EPA has collected and reported greenhouse gas data from approximately 8,000 major industrial facilities for the last 15 years. The data helped policymakers regulate emissions, and the clean air in the U.S. has been protected,” he said.
He added that the program’s time-based records provide a rare opportunity to understand how emissions change over years and decades. “The data enabled researchers to help predict future emissions with various scenarios. Time-consequent data are powerful to track longer-term trends,” Minakata explained.
Without this information, he warned, environmental protections could be weakened. “Lacking this ability, our environment in the future would be very vulnerable by lacking the science as solid evidence,” Minakata said.
Supporters of the EPA’s plan argue that cutting back the program would relieve companies of unnecessary costs and reporting burdens. Still, critics see the proposal as shortsighted, particularly as climate change continues to pose challenges at both national and global levels.
The EPA is currently accepting written public comments on the proposal through its online portal and federal register system. The agency will review feedback from individuals, organizations, and stakeholders before moving toward a final decision.
