Co-leading a multistate coalition of 15 attorneys general and two cities, California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a comment letter opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s proposal to rescind the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP). The program is designed to collect accurate and comprehensive data on greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial sources across the United States. Its primary purpose is to provide policymakers, businesses, researchers, and the public with reliable information to track emissions trends and evaluate the effectiveness of climate policies. In the comment letter, the coalition highlights how the rescission of the program would not only be unlawful but would also jeopardize public health and the environment and undermine the nation’s competitiveness worldwide by eliminating the U.S.’s longstanding source of reliable facility-level greenhouse gas data needed to plan emissions reductions effectively.
“The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program has empowered businesses to track progress, investors to evaluate climate risk, and communities to understand their local environmental footprint,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Let’s be very clear: Rescinding this program will not make emissions go away. It will only make them harder to track – and that is precisely the point, as the Trump Administration continues to enable major polluters to operate in the shadows. Not only would EPA’s action here be illegal, but this rule if implemented would make us less competitive with nations that track and confront severe threats imposed by greenhouse gas emissions. We urge the EPA to withdraw this proposal immediately."