EPA Unveils Greenhouse Gas Emission Tracking Scheme

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled proposals to oblige dominant US firms to both regulate and feedback information on their own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Among the air pollutants that will need to be tracked under the scheme are CO2 and Hydroflourocarbons, and it will cover 85 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions created at approximately 10,000 sites across the land. 

Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Under the terms of the new legislations, industrial fossil fuel burning plants, oil refineries and additional sites will be compelled to advise the EPA if their annual emissions totals top the 25,000 ton mark (equivalent to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated by over 4,500 cars over the course of a year).

“This is a major step forward in our effort to address the greenhouse gases polluting our skies”, administrator at the EPA, Lisa Jackson, stated.

“For the first time, we begin collecting data from the largest facilities in this country, ones that account for approximately 85 percent of the total U.S. emissions.  The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions.”

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The new scheme will get underway on 1st January, 2010, and its aim is both to identify the source of GHGs, and to recommend ways of mitigating emissions.  Companies covered by it will also be able to keep track on their emissions, and see how they’re doing compared to other sites. They will also have the facility to propose ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenhouse gases are emitted as a result of industrial fossil fuel incineration and other processes that take place within industry.

2010 will be the first year of coverage, and the results gleaned during the initial twelve months of operation will need to be presented to the EPA in 2011.

News of the introduction of the EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting scheme first emerged in March 2009, and it was hailed then as a sign of progress towards greater regulation of air pollutants.