On December 1, 2025, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) published the final version of its previously proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting rule under Part 253. For those who follow methane and greenhouse gas regulations, it’s not a shock, but it has the potential to impact industry across the state and even potentially some outside the state of New York. As written, the rule specifically calls out certain industries like Power Generation and Gas suppliers with additional requirements. Additionally, the NYSDEC will require some GHG reporters to have their emissions calculations verified by a third party. All of this takes effect for reporting year 2026, with the first reports due to the state on June 1, 2027.
The NYSDEC is taking a lot of the structure from its rule from both the USEPA Greenhouse Gas Mandatory Reporting Rule (40 CFR Part 98) and the California Air Resource Board SB 219, which may be familiar to many industries. The first difference from the USEPA rule is that the triggering threshold for Part 253 is lower. To qualify for reporting in NY, a source must emit more than 10,000 metric tons of CO2(eq) compared to the 25,000 metric tons (MT) for the USEPA rule. To qualify for reporting, an operator first must calculate their GHG emissions from 2023 to 2025, if you exceeded the threshold of 10,000 MT in any of those years, then you are required to submit a report for 2026.
Another important distinction for this calculation is that NY is requiring operators to use the 20-year global warming potential (GWP) instead of the 100-year potential in the Mandatory Reporting Rule. This greatly impacts methane emissions as the GWP of methane increases from 28 to 84. There are two categories of reporters under Part 253, small and large. Large emitters are classified as sources that emit more than 25,000 MT of CO2(eq) or if your industry sector has a different triggering threshold.
In the drafted rule, four industries have specific call outs for triggering reporting in NY Part 253: Fuel Suppliers, Electric Power Entities, Suppliers of Agricultural Lime and Fertilizer, and Anaerobic Digestion and Liquid Storage of Waste. Waste Haulers must report if emissions from waste transportation to landfills or combustion facilities outside of NY would exceed 10,000 MT. Most sectors that have a subpart of the greenhouse gas rule will utilize the same methods to calculate their emissions to report to NY, which require some additional information.
Fuel Suppliers are defined in the written rule as those “that supply a quantity of fuel to an end user in New York State that generates any amount of GHG emissions per emission year. This includes suppliers of natural gas, liquid fuels and petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas, and coal.” End users are defined as the final purchaser not for the purpose of retransmission or resale. The implications of this cannot be understated; this means fuel suppliers outside of the state of New York that send gas or oil to the state via pipeline or truck with no other operations in the state are potentially required to report. Biogas producers like RNG facilities only have to report if they deliver gas to an end user, not if they send their gas to a pipeline. If a natural gas supplier produces “the cubic feet of natural gas necessary to generate any GHG emissions per emission year”, then that supplier is automatically required to report regardless of its total emissions as expressed in the rule. Oil and coal producers/suppliers to the state have the same threshold. To qualify as a large source for natural gas, the operator would have to move more than 15 million cubic feet of gas. Coal facilities trigger large emitter status if more than 500 tons of coal are produced while oil triggers at 100,000 gallons.
Oil and Gas suppliers are required to use the methods detailed in Subpart W of the Mandatory Reporting Rule that was amended in May 2024. As stated in the rule, for those suppliers, they must report both the amount of gas supplied to the state as well as the emissions of each operating sector including production, gathering and boosting, transmission compression and pipeline, distribution, underground storage, and LNG storage if the aggregate of those sectors emit over 10,000 MT of CO2(eq). This departs from Subpart W where the reporting was triggered only if each specific segment crossed the reporting threshold. Natural Gas distribution systems that trigger reporting have county specific data to report in addition to the data normally calculated under Subpart W. If your gas facilities are subject to Part 203, you must report all information required by that Part.
As prescribed in the rule, if an operator in NY imports gas, fuel or other supplies from out of state, the operator has to calculate the GHG emissions from the out of state fuel using an emission factor based on industry type multiplied by the heat (MMBTU’s) supplied to the state. These emissions are then added to the operator’s in-state emissions for determining thresholds. In addition, the distance the fuel travels to the NY border, composition data, and specifications like heating value or API gravity are all required to be reportedgLike the oil and gas sector, power generation has additional requirements beyond those seen in the greenhouse gas reporting rule. In addition to accounting for electricity generated, operators will have to calculate emissions for imported energy including transmission losses. Cogeneration units are included in the same sector. Also, like the fuel suppliers, electricity suppliers must account for emissions from out of state utilizing a factor.
Beyond the calculations, operators have a few additional requirements under Part 253. All operators subject to Part 253 must submit a monitoring plan to the NYSDEC. The monitoring plan must include elements like data collection methods, quality assurance procedures, and defined roles for responsible officials. The rule also states that a penalty structure in Part 253 with each misreported ton considered a separate violation. Large emitters, those that either produce more than their respective industry’s threshold or exceed 25,000 MT of CO2(eq) must also have their emissions reports verified by a third party as provided in the rule. The verification reports for report years 2026 and 2027 are to be submitted by December 1, of the following year. Starting in 2028, verification reports are due on August 1 of the following year.
Third parties interested in verifying emissions must be approved by the NYSDEC and meet specific requirements as well. Applicants must submit conflict of interest determinations to the NYSDEC prior to being approved as a verifier. Applicants are to provide skills and details of the staff that will be performing the verifications. A verification plan must be submitted to the NYSDEC, which is done in conjunction with the reporting entity. Site visits by lead verifiers or industry specific verifiers are required for each reporting facility each year of verification. A verifier can only verify reports for an operator for six consecutive years.
The NYSDEC Part 253 Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program will be applicable to many operators in NY state and even outside state borders. CEC can help companies prepare for this report now by calculating their GHG emissions from calendar years 2023 through 2025.
Contact Leah Blinn at 412-249-1607 or lblinn@cecinc.com, or Dave Morris at 412-275-2949 or dmorris@cecinc.com to get ahead of this important reporting requirement!
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