Trump EPA Reportedly Axing Obama-Era Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure Rule – Watts Up With That?

From THE DAILY CALLER

Audrey Streb
Contributor

President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly eliminating the requirement for industrial plants to collect and report their greenhouse gas emissions, according to multiple reports.

The change would affect roughly 2,300 industrial plants, including oil refineries and coal plants, out of 8,000 applicable facilities according to documents reviewed by ProPublica Thursday, as well as a Friday report by The New York Times. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a “reconsideration” of the “burdensome” Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program on March 12, arguing that it’s costly and hurts small businesses.

“The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is another example of a bureaucratic government program that does not improve air quality,” Zeldin said at the time. “Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing millions of dollars, hurting small businesses and the ability to achieve the American Dream.”

Launched in 2010 under the Obama administration, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting program requires thousands of industrial facilities to report their emissions annually and make the data public. Currently, the EPA requires select industrial plants to report their annual emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, three of the most common elements labeled as greenhouse gases.

“Reducing this burden is a worthwhile step to take,” Heritage Foundation senior research fellow for energy and environmental policy Jack Spencer told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s the pointless overregulation of American industry that has caused a lot of the issues that we’re dealing with now.”

Spencer argued that the government is “probably the worst institution we want to be doing data collection and scientific analysis, just by virtue” and that “there’s a deep temptation for it to be politicized.” He pointed to the private sector and academic institutions as the correct avenues to shoulder the responsibility of expanding scientific knowledge. (RELATED: Biden Rolls Out New ‘Ambitious’ Climate Goals Weeks Before Trump Returns To White House)

“It just puts an additional burden on industry, and more importantly than that, it gives bureaucrats and politicians additional tools to wreak havoc on the economy,” he continued, though he noted that if the private sector and universities want to prioritize this kind of data collection, they are free to do so. “We just don’t need the government to be doing that,” he also said.

Climate policy experts who spoke with ProPublica claimed that the program made it easier for the government to implement climate policies, such as the Biden administration’s plan to cut the American economy’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66% by 2035 relative to 2005 levels, which was announced after Trump won the 2024 election.

“We will not get to the kinds of temperature stabilization needed to protect Americans against the worst climate impacts unless we get the cooperation of developing countries,” former President Joe Biden’s Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs Andrew Light, told the publication. “If the United States won’t even measure and report our own emissions, how in the world can we expect China, India, Indonesia and other major growing developing countries to do the same?”

The Trump administration, however, has already moved to ax dozens of climate policies implemented by both the Obama and Biden administrations in order to “unleash” domestic energy production and remove stringent regulations.

“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” Zeldin said in a March 12 press release.

Trump declared a national energy emergency on Jan. 20, stating that “the integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure” is “an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security.” (RELATED: ‘Just Getting Started’: Energy Experts Say Trump Admin Could Fuel ‘Nuclear Renaissance’)

Less than one month after taking office, Trump established the National Energy Dominance Council to advise him on expanding “all forms of reliable and affordable energy production to drive down inflation, grow our economy, create good-paying jobs, reestablish American leadership in manufacturing, lead the world in artificial intelligence, and restore peace through strength by wielding our commercial and diplomatic levers to end wars across the world,” he wrote.”

EPA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment or request for a copy of the documents reviewed by ProPublica.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Related