Trump EPA ends program that required reporting on hazardous factory farm emissions
The move reduces even further federal oversight of pollutants such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, advocates say.
By Zamone Perez
As a legal appeal to force factory farms to disclose hazardous emissions continues to play out, environmental advocates are calling attention to a new Trump administration rule that could limit reporting on those same farms.
Advocates are appealing a federal court’s decision to uphold a policy exempting factory farms from publicly disclosing hazardous emissions. The same groups are now raising the alarm as the Environmental Protection Agency ends the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, reducing federal oversight of factory farm emissions.
Ryan Maher, staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said many factory farms already have exemptions from the program but ending it would place even more limits on emissions reporting.
“This move by EPA essentially eliminates responsibilities for industries to report,” Maher explained. “There will be some state-level reporting still, but this is the cornerstone of understanding what’s happening with greenhouse gas emissions, and EPA is doing away with it in large part.”
The Trump administration has said ending the rule would save businesses an estimated $2.4 billion in regulatory costs while still complying with the Clean Air Act.
More than 8,000 facilities, including factory farms, were required to report emissions under the program. Environmental groups have submitted comments on how taking away the rule will further limit information about factory farms. Maher noted it helped provide a big-picture look at pollution across major farms, a useful tool when trying to craft policy.
“It’s a broad picture of the state of the union when it comes to greenhouse gasses throughout the U.S.,” Maher emphasized. “It’s used by EPA to come up with national-level understandings of pollution levels and even to comply with international greenhouse gas reporting obligations.”
The original exemption for reporting on ammonia and hydrogen sulfide was passed in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term. Advocates argued the rule leaves families near livestock farms in the dark about harmful air pollutants.
This story was originally published by Public News Service.
