EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed the Final Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule today in efforts to better monitor the emission of greenhouse gases across the country. The final rule will require for fossil fuel suppliers, vehicle and engine manufacturers, and facilities that emit over 25,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually to report their emissions to the EPA.
Starting in January 2010, some 10,000 facilities across the country will begin their emissions reporting for the first time, accounting for roughly 85% of American greenhouse gas emissions. The new rule is targeted at large manufacturers and facilities that do most of our polluting, and Administrator Jackson reported that the majority of small businesses will be exempt from this rule. In statement released by the EPA today, this will account for the equivalent of emissions by 4,600 motor vehicles annually.
Though the rule imposes requirements on major industries to monitor and report their own greenhouse gas emissions, there has already been support for the rule from that community. Three major industry groups—the Edison Electric Institute, the American Petroleum Institute, and the American Chemistry Council—have commended the EPA for issuing a reporting rule that they believe is more flexible than the EPA’s initial proposal.
Yet the new requirements are not receiving universal approval. Sen. Murkowski (R-AL) is in the process of drafting an amendment that would remove the EPA’s jurisdiction over monitoring stationary carbon emitting sources. In response, Administrator Jackson and White House energy and climate advisor Carol Browner have criticized such an amendment, stating that it would have negative impacts on industrial development and on appropriations processes.
With this new reporting rule, the government will now have its first comprehensive monitoring system that can track greenhouse gas emissions across the country. Should the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions ever be federally mandated, the EPA will now have an established system—one ripe with specific data on key emitters—to serve as a regulatory body.
Various congressional committees met this summer to discuss how exactly carbon emissions would regulated should a version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act pass in the Senate. Would they be monitored by the EPA? The Department of Agriculture? The Department of the Interior? While a truly comprehensive and efficient system would most likely require the convergence of several offices within the Administration, the new rule established by the EPA may serve a framework for such potential regulatory collectivization.
As the EPA’s final rule monitors only stationary sources of carbon emissions, it will be interesting to watch how the drafted Murkowski amendment plays out in the Senate (see “Lisa Murkowski proposes to fiddle while Alaska burns“).
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Question for Joe (If Time Allows)
Joe, does the new rule call for oil companies to report the amount of CO2 that is generated when their products (e.g., gasoline, etc.) are actually used?
Although the facilities themselves (e.g., refineries) certainly use a lot of energy and generate a great deal of CO2, the much much larger problem, of course, is that the fuels themselves generate CO2 when used in autos, trucks, planes, and so forth. And of course, individual citizens won’t be reporting the CO2 emissions from individual cars. So, I’m wondering if the rule actually calls on oil companies — the fuel providers — to report those figures en masse?
Be Well,
Jeff
Iz sorry, Doktor Joe. I’m just not getting the mobile v. stationary distinction.
Stationary: a source that doesn’t move around, such as a factory.
Mobile: a source that does move around, such as a car.
I think this answers Jeff’s question. Since the rule only applies to stationary sources, it applies to emissions from refineries but not to emissions from the cars that burn the gas.
From the EPA’s FAQ:
http://www.epa.gov/ climatechange/ emissions/ ghg_faq.html#mobileincluded
Why are both downstream and upstream reporting required?
This rule responds to a specific request from Congress to collect data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from both upstream production and downstream sources, as appropriate. The rule requires reporting by facilities that directly emit GHGs above the selected threshold as a result of combustion of fuel or industrial processes (downstream sources). The majority of these reporters are large facilities in the electricity generation and industrial sectors. The rule also requires upstream suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial GHGs to report the GHG emissions that could be emitted from combustion or use of the quantity of fuels or industrial gases supplied into the economy. In many cases, the fossil fuels and industrial GHGs supplied by producers and importers are used and ultimately emitted by a large number of small sources. To cover these direct emissions would require reporting by hundreds or thousands of small facilities. To avoid this impact, the rule does not include all of those emitters but instead requires reporting by the suppliers of industrial gases and suppliers of fossil fuels.
So, which is the kind of CO2 that plants need for respiration and which kind, mobile or stationary, contributes to degradation of the atmosphere?
JCWinnie, go drink a glass of milk and then wait an hour. During the next hour drink an entire gallon of milk.
After you’ve completed this task come back and tell which glass made you throw up.
I think this experimental analogy should answer your question as to which CO2 degredates the atmosphere.