Are the GHGs in the National Emissions Inventory Complete?

No, the 2020 National Emissions Inventory (NEI) does not comprehensively capture all sources and sinks of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the United States. For this information, users should review the EPA’s annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks. However, the NEI does report GHG emissions for select sources at finer spatial scales (e.g., county-level).

The 2020 NEI includes GHG emissions for: (1) large point sources at the facility-level, as retrieved from the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP); (2) additional point sources from State, local, and tribal agency submissions; (3) CO2 and CH4 emissions at the county-level for all onroad and nonroad sources; (4) N2O emissions at the county-level for all onroad sources; (5) CO2 emissions at the facility-level from aircraft; (6) CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions at the county-level from locomotives; (7) CO2 emissions at the county-level from commercial marine vehicles; and (8) CO2 and CH4 emissions at the county-level from wildland fires and prescribed burning.

For more information, the EPA provides an overview of the relationship between the annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks and the GHGRP.