Public Comment Period Open for Draft Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory

Last week in the February 28 edition of the Federal Register, EPA announced the availability of the draft 1990-2009 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory.  The public can now offer comments by March 25, 2011.
The document summarizes "the latest information on U.S. anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission trends from 1990 through 2009" and are "presented by source category and sector."  The inventory contains estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions.

This emissions inventory is critical for understanding and developing policy options to address climate change.  According to the Executive Summary, the 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.

The full draft inventory report is available on EPA's dedicated web page, where it can be looked at by chapter online or downloaded as PDF documents.  The linked web page explains how to submit comments.

Comments will be accepted from the public up to March 25, 2011, though comments received after that date will be incorporated into the next edition.