For decades, Maine and other parties have relied on the federal government to publish comprehensive data on greenhouse gas pollution, the foundation for national and local climate policy.
The Environmental Protection Agency stopped publishing that data last year, when President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of international climate agreements. It was the first time in 30 years the agency failed to report information on the volume and source of greenhouse gasses.
Now Maine and other states are working with partners to compile and publish the data themselves.
“Fortunately, a little ray of hope, we have been able to work with the U.S. Climate Alliance and University of Maryland to backfill that dataset for all the states that were relying on it,” said Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Melanie Loyzim in remarks to the Maine Climate Council.
Loyzim said release of the state’s latest report is delayed but it will come out before a December 2026 deadline.
The University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability published a national emissions inventory in April. Researchers there are now updating a tool that states use to estimate their own greenhouse gas pollution and which the EPA has also failed to renew.
“National inventories provide the basis for understanding both what is happening across national economies and insight into policy strategies that may be valuable now and into the future,” said Center for Global Sustainability director Nate Hultman in an April press release.
Center staff declined an on-the-record interview request.
Maine’s biannual ” greenhouse gas inventory” is required by state law. It estimates the amount of climate pollution such as carbon dioxide and methane released from vehicles, homes and businesses, industry and electricity production.
Maine also calculates how those emissions are offset by carbon stored in the state’s forests, peat bogs and other natural sinks.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.