After the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) missed a recent UN deadline to report annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate experts are concerned whether the Trump administration will withdraw entirely from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Data submitted by the US to the UNFCCC comes from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program under the Clean Air Act, a program which could be another target for revocation.
Bracewell partner Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA assistant administrator for Air and Radiation, told Politico’s E&E News that if the Trump administration moves to nix the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, it would probably rely on last summer’s blockbuster Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright limiting agency deference.
Holmstead said if the Trump administration does away with GHG reporting, that won’t hamper future administrations’ ability to regulate climate emissions from a growing number of industrial sectors. “EPA already has plenty of information about greenhouse gas emissions from all types of industrial sources,” he said. “The problem will be the lack of technology to control GHG emissions — not the lack of emissions data.”
