EDF Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump EPA’s Unlawful Delay of Climate Pollution Reporting

(Washington, D.C. – March 21, 2025) Environmental Defense Fund is going to court to challenge the Trump administration’s unlawful attempt to delay requirements for companies to disclose their climate pollution under EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program – a vital source of public information about pollution from some of the largest sources nationwide.

Earlier this year, under Administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA shut down the program’s reporting portal for over a month without explanation. EPA then unlawfully extended the reporting deadline without taking any public comment. Today EDF filed a lawsuit challenging EPA’s action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. 

“People across the country are suffering because of climate change and the more powerful storms, more extreme heat waves, more frequent fires, and other disasters it brings. EPA’s Reporting Program provides communities with vital information to address the pollution that causes those dangers and to advocate for limits on it,” said EDF senior attorney Edwin LaMair. “Administrator Zeldin’s attempt to delay and undermine this important program is unlawful.”

EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is a fundamental part of U.S. climate policy. Data gathered under the program, as required by Congress, is publicly available and is used by a wide variety of state and local governments, businesses, communities, and organizations. The data helps policy makers and the public better understand the pollution that causes climate change and allows them to make better decisions to address that pollution.

“Reconsidering” EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is on the list of 31 agency actions targeted by Administrator Zeldin in an announcement last week. Just days after that announcement, EPA filed a notice in the Federal Register that it would summarily delay the program’s reporting deadlines by two months based on EPA’s unexplained shutdown of the reporting portal, and with no option for public input. 

You can read EDF’s petition here.