EPAs new GHG Reporting Rules

With industries heavily hit with the current recession, the EPA is not going to make it easier with the latest release in GHG reporting regulations.    The latest amendments may be found at

EPAs GHG Reporting Rules

You don’t need to read all of it to realize that many of the industries process engineers will by default become environmental engineers.  Both corporate and plant personnel are feeling the pinch already and it probably will not let up for some time.  

There is a glimmer of hope that keeps engineers like myself still interested in energy and the environment and that is the recognition by the EPA that biogenic content of alternative fuels is a GHG credit.  Some of the new rules in the above link begin to lay out the reporting structure that will be implemented across the board. 

Specifically,  in ‘Part 98 Mandatory GHG Reporting, Subpart A - General Provisions, Section 98.34 Monitoring and QA/QC Requirements (page 755)’,   the rules allow for now a ‘reporting structure’ that may be used in a future ‘cap and trade’ scheme.   You can ask Goldman Sachs how important that is going to be. 

So, substituting fossil fuels with alternative fuels high biogenic content  will soon become a higher priority if it has not happened already.

Information on determining biogenic content may be had at:

Beta Analytic