A staffer sends this along, regarding the Interior section of the omnibus bill:
The title appropriates $3.5 million for EPA to establish a rule requiring mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions above appropriate thresholds in all sectors of the United States. The rule is to be finalized within 18 months. No further guidelines are established, and no statutory authorization is referenced. The impacts of this proposed rulemaking, with no thresholds set in legislation, could be burdensome, and lay the ground work for future cap and trade program.
Actually, the Department of Energy already produces numbers on greenhouse emissions, even state-by state numbers. But these are based on voluntary reporting and reliable estimates and formulas — there is no “mandatory reporting.”
So I would not panic, but this does appear to be a change for the worse. Congress is already making a bi-partisan war on America’s energy producers and consumers (i.e., everyone) with the Energy Bill they will pass today. It is only a matter of time before climate alarmism adds still more to the already expanding burden on everyone in the form of higher gasoline prices and electricity bills.