Casten Introduces Legislation Requiring the EPA to Report Emissions Caused by US Fossil Fuel Exports
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) introduced the Exported Carbon Emissions Report Act, legislation to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regularly publish a summary for each of the previous ten years of total emissions of carbon dioxide and methane related to United States fossil fuel exports.
“When we talk about the carbon footprint of the United States, we rarely have the full picture,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “The Exported Carbon Emissions Report Act helps fill in the rest of the story on the U.S. contribution to global warming pollution, ensuring we know the impacts of the fossil fuels – like liquified natural gas – that we export across the globe.”
In 2022, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions totaled 14 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents – a 3% decrease since 1990, after a high of 15.2% above 1990 levels in 2007. This apparent decline in U.S. emissions, however, leaves out an important fact – the increase in carbon emissions effectively exported from the United States to other countries, including in the form of fossil fuels like liquified natural gas.
Since natural gas consists primarily of methane, a pollutant with over 80 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and methane leakage is endemic not only in the United States, but around the world, U.S. LNG exports represent a significant fraction of the U.S. contribution to global warming pollution.
The Exported Carbon Emissions Report Act will require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), within 180 days of enactment and annually thereafter, to publish a summary for each of the previous ten years of the total emissions of carbon dioxide and methane that are released:
- within the boundaries of the United States that are the result of the extraction, processing, transportation, combustion and other use of fossil fuels; and
- outside the boundaries of the United States that are the result of leakage and combustion of fossil fuels produced or refined in the United States and subsequently exported from the United States.
The Act will require the EPA, in implementing this bill, to:
- use the best available scientific information, including information collected through direct monitoring and measurement, and disclosures of emissions by other national and subnational governments;
- be informed by established international standards, including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Resources Institute; and
- consult with the Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency in implementing this Act.
Text of the legislation can be found here.
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