Termination of Greenhouse Gas Disclosure
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) releases a proposal to terminate greenhouse gas disclosure, aimed at maintaining businesses’ legal obligations under the Clean Air Act and saving money.
The US Environmental Protection Agency believes that the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program will not have a material impact on improving health and the environment, and terminating the program could save US enterprises $2.4 billion in regulatory costs.
Related Post: US SEC Releases Climate-related Disclosure Rules by Public Companies
Greenhouse Gas Disclosure Introduction
In 2008, the United States released a greenhouse gas reporting program under the Clean Air Act, requiring large corporations and suppliers to disclose greenhouse gas data. The current greenhouse gas reporting program involves over 8000 companies across 47 emission categories. In 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency collected Waste Emissions Charges from the fossil fuel industry (excluding natural gas sales) under Section 136 of the Clean Air Act. In March 2025, the United States rejected the final rule on Waste Emissions Charges and revised the collection period for waste discharge fees in July, requiring companies to only pay the fees starting from 2034.
The US Environmental Protection Agency plans to terminate greenhouse gas disclosure for 46 categories and suspend disclosure for some fossil fuels in the proposal. The Clean Air Act does not require companies to collect greenhouse gas emission information, and continuing data collection will not help companies fulfill any legal obligations. This revision will save $303 million annually from 2025 to 2033, with the fossil fuel industry saving $256 million and other industries saving $47 million. The US Environmental Protection Agency expects to save a total cost of $2 billion (calculated at a discount rate of 7%) to $2.4 billion (calculated at a discount rate of 3%) over the next decade.
Based on terminating greenhouse gas disclosures for 46 categories, the US Environmental Protection Agency believes that regulatory policies only require the collection of waste emission fees from the fossil fuel industry and plans to postpone the waste emission fees until 2034. If this proposal is passed, the above-mentioned companies will not need to disclose their greenhouse gas emission data for 2025. The US Environmental Protection Agency plans to extend the reporting deadline from March 2026 to June 2026 to issue final rules exempting companies from disclosure obligations.
Reference:
EPA Releases Proposal to End the Burdensome, Costly Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
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