The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Proposes to Stop Collecting Emissions Data

The proposed rule aims to end the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program tracking emissions data from thousands of large polluters.

Diana Butron

Since 2010 the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program gathers the annual carbon emissions data, over time covering more than 8 thousand industrial facilities and including 47 categories in oil and gas, manufacturing and waste. The data was used to create the annual greenhouse gas inventory which was stopped by the Trump administration this year, 2025. Also, the program helped to standardize the emissions disclosures across industries.

Opposers of the proposal, such as climate advocates, claim that this rule would deprive the cities with the information needed to hold polluters accountable and dent the efforts towards protecting their communities across the country. In Congress and the environmental space argue that "the reporting program forms a crucial backbone of federal climate rules and regulations.” 

EPA’s staff claims that this program contributes to unnecessary costs for American businesses which increases living prices and hurting the nation’s communities. EPA also claimed that the program is not mandated by the Clean Air Act, therefore not directly related to a potential regulation. In addition, in EPA’s press release it was claimed that "By reducing the overall regulatory burden, current regulated parties will be able to focus compliance expenditures on actual, tangible environmental benefits. As the agency continues to Power the Great American Comeback, this proposal represents a significant step toward streamlining operations, cutting unnecessary red tape, unleashing American energy, and advancing EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

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