Ryan Whaley Coldiron Shandy

On April 10, 2009, EPA opened a 60-day public comment period for its “Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases; Proposed Rule.” The comment period will run until June 9, 2009.

The text of the proposed rule can be found at 74 Federal Register 16447, or by clicking on the following link:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=090000648094dac4.

To recap:

Recently, nearly two years after the Supreme Court held in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide meets the Federal Clean Air Act (CAA) definition of an “air pollutant,” EPA responded with a proposed finding that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases (GHG) endanger human health and the environment.  EPA further proposed that the gases be regulated as pollutants under the CAA.

The mandatory GHG emissions reporting set forth in the Proposed Rule will inform EPA’s plans for further regulating carbon dioxide and establishing other climate change policies.

According to EPA, if approved, the monitoring and reporting regulations would cover between 85-90 percent of GHG emissions, affecting approximately 13,000 emissions sources in a range of industrial sectors. 

Under the Proposed Rule, regulated entities would be required to submit their first annual report to EPA in 2011 for the calendar year 2010.
 
Non-compliance will be subject to the penalty and enforcement provisions set forth in the CAA, which provides for civil and criminal penalties and injunctive relief to compel compliance.  Each day a regulated entity fails to monitor, report, collect or retain GHG emissions data will constitute a separate violation.