Democrats accuse EPA’s Zeldin of wrongly ending greenhouse gas program

A group of climate-minded Democrats wrote to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Monday, accusing the agency of improperly moving to end a federal greenhouse gas tracking program that blue states used as a model for their own carbon tax and cap-and-trade systems.

The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, or GHGRP, was created with a congressional appropriation during the Obama administration. He funded an EPA rule requiring large energy producers and other high-emitting industries to report their greenhouse gas production levels.

Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., a green energy engineer who played a key role in developing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) praised in blue states and criticized by conservatives, led the letter to Zeldin in his role as vice chair of a House caucus focused on sustainable energy.

“We are writing to inform you that the Environmental Protection Agency is violating clear directives from Congress by proposing to terminate EPA’s greenhouse gas reporting program,” Casten’s letter read.

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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin of New York speaks before Congress. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“For more than a decade, this program has been the most important source of transparent, verifiable climate pollution data in the federal government, and EPA has clear authority and obligation to continue to maintain it.”

The letter, also signed by key energy coalition representatives Donald Beyer of Virginia, Paul Tonko of New York, Mike Quigley of Illinois and Doris Matsui of California, all Democrats, says ending the program would undermine “evidence-based governance” at a key time in climate change “challenges.”

Casten’s group told Zeldin that the move appears to be the latest strike in “scientific data censorship” by President Donald Trump and his administration, accusing the federal government of restricting, hiding or defunding data-centric operations across agencies.

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Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., speaks to reporters in Washington. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Contacted by Fox News Digital, an EPA official confirmed receipt of Casten’s letter and said the agency would respond through appropriate channels.

A source familiar with the matter asserted that GHGRP had no material impact on improving human health or protecting the environment, and that it was simply another onerous regulation that the federal government needed to pass on to energy producers who would prefer to focus on efficiency for American consumers.

Eliminating the rule and program would save the private sector up to $2.4 billion in regulatory costs related to reporting requirements and legal obligations, critics said.

California and New York have similar state-level programs, and the Empire State DEP revealed in a fact sheet that its version of GHGRP is intended to be helpful in creating cap-and-trade—or as critics call cap-and-tax—creation.

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Facilities emitting more than 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year must report their production to the EPA under the current rule. This heading tends to encompass power plants, oil refineries, large-scale metallurgy and waste management landfills.

Elements considered to be reportable also include methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.