US moves to scrap emissions reporting by polluters

The United States moved Friday to dismantle a “heavily” federal program that follows greenhouse gas emissions in the American economy, the last stage of the administration of President Donald Trump to reduce efforts against climate change.

The Serre Gaz (GHGRP) reports program launched in 2010 covers more than 8,000 facilities, including power plants, fuel suppliers and factories – which represent 85 to 90% of the country’s planet.

Trump, who received hundreds of millions of dollars from the fossil fuels industry during his electoral campaign in 2024, strongly favored the extraction of new oil, gas and coal while moving to suppress competition from solar and wind.

“Alongside President Trump, the EPA continues to keep the promise to release the domination of energy that feeds the American dream,” said the administrator of the environmental protection agency Lee Zeldin, announcing the decision, who will undergo a period of public comments before being finalized.

“The greenhouse gas reports program is nothing more than bureaucratic administrative formalities that do nothing to improve air quality.”

Although the program was implemented by an act of congress, the EPA argued that it was not legally obliged to continue to collect data, with the only exception of methane emissions.

A climate law adopted in 2022 under the leadership of Democratic President Joe Biden established methane fees on oil and gas operations, but the Republicans have recently promulgated “Big Beau Bill” requires such reports only from 2034. Consequently, EPA under Zeldin says that it suspends any collection of data until then.

“On many occasions, this administration is trying to hide the data to hide the damage,” Julie McNamara told the Union of Countd Scientists to AFP.

“If we cannot say what an installation does, we cannot hold this responsible installation,” she added, warning that the lack of data on verifiable emissions would be able to action at local, state, national and international levels.

The Democrats had planned this decision after obtaining documents in the spring which indicated that the change was planned.

“Over the past 15 years, GHGRP has collected data on emissions at facilities of more than 8,000 installations, providing vital information to decision -makers, scientists, investors and the public,” said Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in May.

“These data inform our national GHG inventory, support reports on international emissions and serve as a de facto standard for climatic disclosure of many companies in the absence of industry -scale methodologies.”

He added that the data had allowed American industry to market itself as cleaner than foreign competitors, and the end of the program would give an advantage to China.

© 2025 AFP