EPA to Require Separate Reporting of Biomass GHGs

Date: December 23, 2010

Source: News Room

Following stiff opposition from Industry, the EPA will, beginning next year, require some power plants to report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biomass separately from fossil fuel GHGs, reversing on its plan to make separate reporting voluntary. Industry has argued that biomass GHGs are carbon neutral because plants consume carbon dioxide as they grow, activists argue burning more biomass only exacerbates climate change. The EPA published its final rule on Dec. 17 to amend and clarify portions of the agency's 2009 mandatory GHG registry rule that includes the new requirement that power plants report biogenic GHG emissions separately from other emissions. EPA says the new GHG data to be reported under the rule is intended to inform the broader policy debate about the climate impact of biomass.

EPA cautions that the required distinction in accounting does not indicate how the agency will regulate biogenic emissions. It says its decision "is founded solely on the principle that having data available at a more disaggregated level for a reporting program like this one improves transparency and better enables us and other stakeholders to use the data to evaluate future potential policy options, without prejudging what those policies might be. This decision is not based on any conclusions about 'carbon neutrality."

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