EPA officials have said ending mandatory greenhouse gas reporting for the biggest polluters would save those industries hundreds of millions of dollars.
But public comments submitted by trade groups and others ahead of the deadline this week reflected concern that ending the reporting program would expose U.S. manufacturers to potential new costs and complications.
“The lack of publicly verified [greenhouse gas] emissions data for petroleum refineries and petrochemical manufacturing may complicate carbon foot printing and product exports due to the lack of common standards for emissions reporting,” the American Petroleum Institute stated in its comments. “Halting or curtailing the EPA’s collection of [greenhouse gas reporting program] data from the U.S. oil and natural gas industry may leave U.S. companies ill equipped to meet the demand for comparable and robust information.”
Meanwhile, states, front-line communities and scientists would lose their best source of economywide climate pollution data, commenters said.
