EPA Proposes Tracking Industry Emissions
Kate Galbraith, NY Times, March 10, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule on Tuesday that would require suppliers of fossil fuel and industrial chemicals, manufacturers of motor vehicles and engines, and large direct emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with emissions equal to or greater than 25,000 tonnes per year to quantify and report their GHG emissions. The EPA says that the rule, promulgated under the Clean Air Act, would account for 85-90% of the country’s emissions of GHGs.
Many facilities already account and report the information voluntarily through various registries or federal agencies.
Large stationary sources of GHGs would be included in the new requirements. For example, buildings with an aggregate maximum rated heat input capacity equal to or greater than 30 mmBTU/hour (thousand thousand BTUs per hour) would have to comply, as would manure management systems that have emissions equal to or greater than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.
A 60-day comment period and two public hearings will take place in April 2009. If the rule is finalized this fall, as the EPA hopes, reporting could begin in 2011, after the monitoring of 2010 emissions.
Read the EPA's press release here, get more information on the proposed rule here, and read the complete NY Times story here.
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