US to stop collecting emissions data from polluters

The United States moved yesterday (13 September) to dismantle a "burdensome" federal program that tracks greenhouse gas emissions across the US economy, the latest step by President Donald Trump's administration to undercut efforts against climate change.

The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), launched in 2010, covers more than 8,000 facilities -- including power plants, fuel suppliers, and factories -- that together account for 85-90% of the country's planet-warming pollution.

Trump, who received hundreds of millions of dollars from the fossil fuel industry during his 2024 election campaign, has heavily promoted new oil, gas, and coal extraction while moving to suppress competition from solar and wind.

"Alongside President Trump, EPA continues to live up to the promise of unleashing energy dominance that powers the American Dream," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said in announcing the decision, which will undergo a public comment period before being finalized.

"The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality."

Although the program was established through an act of Congress, the EPA argued it is not legally obliged to continue collecting the data, with the sole exception of methane emissions.

A climate law passed in 2022 under Democratic president Joe Biden established a methane fee on oil and gas operations, but Republicans' recently enacted "Big Beautiful Bill" requires such reporting only from 2034. Accordingly, the EPA under Zeldin says it will suspend all data collection until then.

Democrats had anticipated the move after they obtained documents in the spring that indicated the change was planned.

"For the past 15 years, the GHGRP has collected facility-level emissions data from over 8,000 facilities, supplying vital information to policymakers, scientists, investors, and the public," Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in May.

"These data inform our national GHG inventory, support international emissions reporting obligations, and serve as the de facto standard for many companies' climate disclosures in the absence of industry-wide methodologies."

He added that the data had allowed US industry to market itself as cleaner than foreign competitors, and ending the program would hand an advantage to China.