On March 11, 2009 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule that requires an estimated 13,000 facilities nationwide to track and report greenhouse gas emissions. By most estimates, this will account for 85- 90 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA draft rule will require reporting for direct emitters of greenhouse gases with emissions of at least 25,000 metric tons (CO2 or equivalent). This will most likely include cement production, iron and steel production, electricity generation, industrial chemicals, car and engine manufacturing. The draft rule does not include third party verification.

A 60-day comment period has been opened and is currently active. The EPA plans to have a final rule in place by June 2009 that requires industries to begin reporting emissions by 2010. The EPA Registry itself was previously established in federal appropriations last year and is an important step toward a national cap-and-trade program. The links below provide an in-depth overview of the EPA draft rule.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/epa-proposes-reporting-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions/?hp

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgrulemaking.html