EPA is going to require reports on greenhouse gas (GHG) from “all sectors of the economy”. Various air quality programs require data on other air emissions, but now EPA will require data on GHG emissions to develop its own greenhouse gas inventory. What type of data is going to be required and how is this data collection and reporting going to affect operations?
Data required to be reported is total annual GHG emissions in metric tons of CO2e and annual mass GHG emissions delineated by source and supply. Vehicle and engine manufacturers are going to have to report data as an “emission rate”.
Data will be required for each individual unit, each process line, fuel use, and feed stock input. Records will be required that document units, operations, processes and activities that are part of the GHG calculation. Also, reports must include all of the data used to arrive at the emission calculation; a detailed description of how the data was collected and what methodologies were used to arrive at the annual CO2e mass value. Any applicable operating and processing data used in the calculations will also have to be reported.
“All sectors of the economy” is broken into forty different categories. The affect on these sectors is increased costs to collect and report CO2e data. With or without cap and trade, CO2e inventories are here to stay.
