EPA Takes Another Step Toward Regulating Emissions

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The Environmental Protection Agency took a significant—if wonky—step forward on addressing global warming on Tuesday, with the announcement that the agency has finalized rules on greenhouse gas emissions reporting.

The new rule will require all major polluters to begin collecting and reporting their greenhouse-gas emissions. The EPA already puts out an annual inventory of their emissions, but this takes reporting down to every individual source emitting 25,000 metric tons or more of CO2 per year. Congress directed EPA to write the new rule in 2007, but the Bush administration never acted on the requirement. The registry will be a key element in regulating carbon dioxide.

The rule will cover approximately 10,000 sources, accounting for roughly 85 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Electric utilities, oil and chemical refineries, major manufacturers, iron and steel producers, and concentrated animal feeding operations will need to start collecting data on January 1, 2010 and reporting that data by 2011. Heavy-duty vehicle and engine manufacturers will have a one-year delay on the new rule, with reporting set to begin in 2012.

Obama tipped his hand on the announcement of the new rule in his speech to the UN, noting the new rule as a sign of domestic progress. “For the first time ever, we’ll begin tracking how much greenhouse gas pollution is being emitted throughout the country,” said Obama.

“The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions,” said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson in a statement.

The rule could play a key role in guiding the number and distribution of carbon credits under a cap-and-trade system, should Congress enact a plan in the near future. Or, in the absence of a new law governing emissions, it signals that the EPA is moving forward on regulations with or without Congress.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate