EPA Facility Level Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data
Description
EPA’s greenhouse gas data portal at ghgdata.epa.gov (the FLIGHT tool) is an interactive website that lets users explore facility-level greenhouse gas emissions reported under EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. It provides maps, tables, and charts showing emissions by facility, industry sector, gas, location, and year, and allows filtering by state or county, source category, emission thresholds, and gas type. Users—such as policymakers, researchers, advocates, and companies—can quickly identify major emitters, compare facilities, examine trends over time, and download customized datasets for further analysis.
Questions this resource can help answer
Which facilities are the largest greenhouse gas emitters in my state, county, or city?
How have emissions from a particular facility or sector changed over the past decade?
What share of local emissions comes from power plants vs. refineries, landfills, or other sectors?
Which facilities emit large amounts of methane or other non?CO2 gases?
How do emissions in my community compare to those in neighboring areas or the state as a whole?
How do I use this resource?
From the website: “You can search the data set for individual facilities by name or location or filter the data set by state or county, fuel type, industry sectors and sub-sectors, annual facility emission thresholds, and greenhouse gas type. You can also compare emission trends over time and download data generated as a product of your analyses.”
Pro tips
-Start with “All GHGs (CO2e)” and then drill down to specific gases (e.g., methane, nitrous oxide) to see what’s driving emissions.
-Use filters by industry sector (power plants, petroleum, waste, etc.) to quickly find the biggest emitters in a given category.
-Turn on trend views (where available) to see whether a facility’s emissions are going up or down over time.
-Always note the reporting year and program coverage limits—not all sources are required to report.
-Export data and join it with maps (GIS), permitting data, or EJ tools for richer local analyses.
Resource information
Technical specifications
EPA’s greenhouse gas data portal (FLIGHT) is built on facility?level reports submitted each year to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP). Large emitters in covered sectors (e.g., power plants, refineries, industrial facilities, landfills) that exceed size or emissions thresholds are required to calculate their emissions using EPA?specified methods—such as direct measurements, fuel/production data with emission factors, or process?specific equations—and report totals by gas (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, etc.) and source category. EPA runs automated and manual quality checks, resolves flagged issues with reporters, and then converts individual gas quantities into carbon dioxide–equivalent (CO2e) using global warming potentials so emissions can be summed and compared. The portal then aggregates these vetted, standardized data into searchable maps, tables, and charts by facility, sector, location, gas, and year.
