About 8,000 facilities in the US will no longer have to report annual emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases.
On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed scrapping a 2010 program that requires polluters to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions — the country’s most comprehensive tracking system. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the program “bureaucratic red tape,” and added that data collection “has no material impact on improving human health and the environment.” Critics counter that without this data, governments can’t identify emission sources — or reduce them.
The move has puzzled many since ending the program would bar every company, including oil firms, from accessing federal subsidies for capturing carbon or producing hydrogen fuel.