Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting
The West Virginia Division of Air Quality (DAQ) does not currently require sources to report their GHG emissions
directly to DAQ. The DAQ will obtain the federal GHG data being collected rather than requiring sources to report
GHG data to the State as well as to EPA. Sources are still encouraged however, to voluntarily report GHGs when
completing their annual emissions inventory.
Reporting Greenhouse Gases to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Mandatory Reporting Rule of Greenhouse Gases (MRR-GHG) applies to direct
greenhouse gas emitters, fossil fuel suppliers, industrial gas suppliers, and facilities that inject CO2 underground
for sequestration or other reasons. In general, the threshold for reporting is 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon
dioxide (CO2) equivalent per year. Reporting is at the facility level, except for certain suppliers of fossil fuels
and industrial greenhouse gases.
Is the Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule applicable to your facility?
Please use the EPA Applicability Tool
Greenhouse Gas Overview
Certain gases effectively trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. The net effect is much like a greenhouse where the
glass allows light but keeps heat from escaping. The so-called greenhouse gases can have a similar effect and may
actually influence the earth's climate. Our climate appears to be warming and many scientists believe that human
greenhouse gas emissions are contributing. The warming potentially can lead to serious consequences, including
changes in weather patterns, increased droughts, increased extreme weather events and adverse impacts on various
species.
The substances of concern include individual gases as well as groups of gases that have similar characteristics. The
typical list includes six items:
The greatest amounts of emissions, both naturally and man-made, occur from carbon dioxide, followed by methane.
Greenhouse gases are not created equal. Each possesses a different efficiency for trapping heat. For example methane
is about 21 times more potent than CO2 and sulfur hexafluoride is thousands of times more potent than
CO2.
Therefore, to estimate the net effect on climate, GHG emissions are usually converted to CO2 equivalent
(CO2e) and
then expressed in metric tons.
Global Warming Potentials (100-Year Time Horizon)
Gas |
GWP |
CO2 |
1 |
CH4 |
21 |
N2O |
310 |
HFC-23 |
11,700 |
HFC-32 |
650 |
HFC-125 |
2,800 |
HFC-134a |
1,300 |
HFC-143a |
3,800 |
HFC-152a |
140 |
HFC-227ea |
2,900 |
HFC-236fa |
6,300 |
HFC-4310mee |
1,300 |
CF4 |
6,500 |
C2F6 |
9,200 |
C4F10 |
7,000 |
C5F14 |
7,400 |
SF6 |
23,900 |
Source: IPCC (1996) and listed as Table ES-1 from the Executive Summary of the Inventory of U.S.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2009, page 3:
*The CH4 GWP includes the direct effects and those indirect effects due to the production of
tropospheric ozone and stratospheric water vapor. The indirect effect due to the production of CO2
is not included.
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U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report
Inventory of U.S.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2018
(April 2011) USEPA #430-R-11-005
The Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, is an emissions inventory that identifies and quantifies
the country's primary anthropogenic1sources and sinks of greenhouse gases that are essential for addressing climate
change. This inventory adheres to both (1) a comprehensive and detailed set of methodologies for estimating sources
and sinks of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and (2) a common and consistent mechanism that enables Parties to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to compare the relative contribution of different
emission sources and greenhouse gases to climate change.
In 1992, the United States signed and ratified the UNFCCC. As stated in Article 2 of the UNFCCC, “The ultimate
objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the Conference of the Parties may adopt is to
achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas
concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate
system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to
climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a
sustainable manner.”
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
EPA
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
Greenhouse Gas Permitting
Clean Air Act Permitting for Greenhouse
Gases
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the largest stationary sources were, for the first time, covered by the
Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V Operating Permit Programs beginning January 2, 2011. These
permitting programs, required under the Clean Air Act, are proven tools for protecting air quality and the same
tools will be used to reduce GHG emissions. But the thresholds established in the Act for determining when emissions
of pollutants make a source subject to these permitting programs, 100 and 250 tons per year, were based on
traditional pollutants and were not designed to be applied to GHGs.
Permitting Effects of the Tailoring Rule
Date: July 1, 2011 - Present
- PSD - Sources that emit or have the potential to emit at least 100,000 tpy CO2e and that undertake a
modification that increases net emissions of GHGs by at least 75,000 tpy CO2e will also be subject to
PSD
requirements.
- Title V - New Sources as well as existing sources not already subject to Title V that emit, or have the
potential to emit, at least 100,000 tpy CO2e became subject to Title V requirements.
Notes:
- If sources or modifications exceed these CO2e-adjusted GHG triggers, they are not covered by
permitting
requirements unless their GHG emissions also exceed the corresponding mass-based triggers (i.e., unadjusted for
CO2e).
- No source with emissions below 50,000 tpy CO2e, and no modification resulting in net GHG increases of
less than
50,000 tpy CO2e, will be subject to PSD or title V permitting before April 30, 2016.