Greenhouse Gas

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.

• Emissions Inventory

  The USEPA requires States to inventory and submit emissions from air pollution sources. These sources include Point Sources (industrial stationary sources), Nonpoint Sources (small facilities, lawn mowers, wood stoves, etc.), and Mobile Sources (cars, trucks, boats, etc.).

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?

• EPA Applicability Tool

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:

• Carbin Dioxide (CO₂)
• Methane (CH₄)
• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)
• Sulfur Hexa-fluoride (SF₆)
• Hydrofluorocarbons
• Per-fluorocarbins

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)

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.

USEPA #430-R-11-005 (April 2011)

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.”

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report

• Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2018

The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

• EPA Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program