If your business is carbon intensive, beginning calendar-year 2010, chances are you will have to measure and report your greenhouse gas emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). There are a number of rules that apply, the most important being that if your company emits at least 25,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents annually. The new law, which is called the Mandatory Reporting Rule (MRR), will require more than 13,000 businesses to report their carbon emissions by March 2011. However, you must start collecting information starting January 2010.

So, how do you know if you meet this threshold?

If you generate any of your own power, are in metals production or utilize boilers, you’ll most likely be affected by the law. In total, there are 26 different source categories—mostly manufacturing or production companies.

The bad news is that if you don’t report or don’t report correctly, MRR falls under the Clean Air Act and you may be subject to administrative, civil and criminal penalties. That means jail time and five-figure daily fines. The good news is there are consultants already in place to make sure you are prepared and all of your paperwork is in order.

For a small fee you can hire us to tell you if you’ll need to report or not. Verus can help you measure and begin reporting. Click on this link or call 800-275-1847, for free, to see if your business falls into one of the 26 categories.

The big question: Why is the EPA requiring companies to report their emissions? It all has to do with the government wanting short and long-term greenhouse gas reductions. The Obama Administration is using a “carrot and stick” approach. The “carrot” is cap and trade and the “stick” is the EPA. So if a cap- and-trade bill doesn’t get passed it’s very likely that greenhouse gases will be regulated by the EPA as part of the Clean Air Act. Then companies will face heavy fines for non-compliance.

The Obama Administration has already issued Executive Order 13514, which requires the entire the federal government to measure and reduce its carbon footprint. Even parts of the military are affected by this order. So it’s clear that President Obama is serious about reducing the county’s carbon footprint. You probably already know that the U.S. House has passed the Waxman-Markey Bill, but the Kerry-Boxer Bill, in the Senate, is still being considered. Reliable resources indicate that there are 24 Senators that are “on the fence,” and if 11 of them vote “yes” on the bill it will pass. Both cap-and-trade bills will ease CO2 emitters into reductions the first few years with the use of allowances, which will be, at first, given away and then sold to companies that can’t make reductions. Companies that can make significant reductions will be in the catbird seat, and will be able to sell their reductions as offsets.