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A group of climate-minded Democrats wrote Monday to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, accusing the agency of improperly moving to terminate a federal greenhouse gas-tracking program that blue states have used as a model for their own carbon tax and cap-and-trade systems.
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, or GHGRP, was created under a congressional appropriation during the Obama administration. It funded an EPA rule requiring large energy producers and other high-emission industries to report their greenhouse gas output levels.
Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., a green-energy engineer who had a key role in crafting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) praised in blue states and criticized by conservatives, led the letter to Zeldin in his role as vice chair of a House caucus focused on sustainable energy.
“We write to inform you that the Environmental Protection Agency is violating clear congressional directives by proposing to end the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program,” Casten’s letter read.
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin of New York speaks before Congress. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“For more than a decade, this program has been the most important source of transparent and verifiable climate pollution data in the federal government, and the EPA has clear authority and obligation to continue maintaining it.”
The letter, also signed by key energy coalition members Reps. Donald Beyer of Virginia, Paul Tonko of New York, Mike Quigley of Illinois, and Doris Matsui of California, all Democrats, said ending the program would undermine “evidence-based governance” at a key moment in climate change “challenges.”
Casten’s group told Zeldin the move appears to be the latest strike in “scientific data censorship” by President Donald Trump and his administration, accusing the feds of restricting, hiding or defunding data-centered operations across the various agencies.
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Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., speaks to reporters in Washington. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Reached by Fox News Digital, an EPA official confirmed receipt of Casten’s letter and said the agency will respond through appropriate channels.
A source familiar with the situation argued the GHGRP has no material impact on improving human health or protecting the environment, and is instead just another onerous regulation for the federal government to pass on to energy producers who would rather focus on providing efficiency to American consumers.
Removing the rule and the program would save the private sector up to $2.4 billion in regulatory costs connected to reporting and statutory obligations, critics have said.
California and New York have similar programs at the state level, and the Empire State’s DEP disclosed in a fact sheet that its version of GHGRP aims to be helpful in creating cap-and-trade — or as critics call cap-and-tax — levies.
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Facilities emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year must report their outputs to the EPA under the current rule. That rubric tends to envelop power plants, oil refineries, large-scale metallurgy, and waste management landfills.
Elements considered reportable also include methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
