E.P.A. to Stop Collecting Emissions Data From Polluters

Climate|E.P.A. to Stop Collecting Emissions Data From Polluters

The Environmental Protection Agency moved on Friday to stop requiring thousands of polluting facilities to report the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that they release into the air.

The E.P.A. proposal would end requirements for thousands of coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities across the country. The government has been collecting this data since 2010 and it is a key tool it uses to track carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that are driving climate change.

The Friday announcement comes as the Trump administration has systematically erased mentions of climate change from government websites while slashing federal funding for research on global warming.

“Alongside President Trump, E.P.A. continues to live up to the promise of unleashing energy dominance that powers the American dream,” Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, said in a statement. “The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape,” Mr. Zeldin said. “It costs American businesses and manufacturing billions of dollars, driving up the cost of living.”

Since it was established, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program has helped guide numerous decisions on federal climate policy. It has also provided data to the United Nations, which has required developed countries to submit tallies of their emissions.

In addition, private companies often rely on the program’s data to demonstrate to investors that their efforts to cut emissions are working. Communities often use the data to determine whether local facilities are releasing air pollution that threatens public health.

The E.P.A. proposal would not directly eliminate emissions reporting requirements for certain oil and gas facilities, including pipelines transporting natural gas. That is because those reports were required by Congress as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Instead, the E.P.A. is proposing to allow those specific oil and gas facilities to postpone emissions reporting until 2034. Congressional Republicans already delayed a related requirement for the facilities to pay a fee on their methane emissions until 2034.

Joseph Goffman, who led the E.P.A.’s air office during the Biden administration, said the proposal could have far-reaching consequences for the government’s ability to fight climate change. “With this move, they’re taking away the practical and material capacity of the federal government to do the basic elements of climate policymaking,” he said.