EPA proposal would eliminate the only federal program tracking emissions from the nation’s largest polluters, silencing data vital to public health and climate justice.
WASHINGTON – Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), a system created in 2010 to track emissions from more than 8,000 of the nation’s largest polluters, including power plants, refineries, and oil and gas facilities. The program has been one of the only federal mechanisms providing transparent data on climate pollution. EPA claims the rollback would save industry up to $2.4 billion in compliance costs. If finalized, it would remove reporting obligations for most large facilities, all fuel and industrial gas suppliers, and CO2 injection sites, severely limiting the public’s ability to know where climate pollution originates and how it impacts communities.
Frontline communities already bear the heaviest burdens of fossil fuel pollution. Latino, Black, and Indigenous neighborhoods are disproportionately located near refineries, petrochemical facilities, and transportation corridors where exposure to greenhouse gases and co-pollutants drives asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other health harms. Without transparent data, these communities lose one of their primary tools for holding polluters accountable.
Following the announcement to eliminate the GHGRP, Meisei Gonzalez, Climate Justice & Clean Air Advocate, GreenLatinos, issues the following statement:
“Eliminating the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing less than erasing the truth about who is poisoning our air and destabilizing our climate. For Latino, Black, and Indigenous families already living on the fencelines of refineries and power plants, this proposal denies us transparency, accountability, and the ability to fight for our health. Data is power, and by dismantling this program, EPA is taking power away from the very communities it is supposed to protect. GreenLatinos stands firmly against this rollback and will continue to demand transparency, accountability, and climate justice for our gente and for future generations.”
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