Why is the EPA ending the Climate Leaders program?

I recently blogged about why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is ending the Climate Leaders program for the Green Tie, the official blog of NAEM, the premier association for EHS Management.

The following is a short excerpt from my post.

In an announcement that surprised me, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that it plans to end its Climate Leaders program. As a partner in the program, I received a letter explaining the rationale for this move.

“EPA has determined that climate programs operated by the states and NGOs are now robust enough to service our Partners and other entities that wish to continue to advance their climate leadership through comprehensive reporting (that exceed mandatory reporting requirements) and/or the establishment of facility or corporate-level GHG reduction goals. For this reason, over the coming year, EPA will phase down services the Agency provides under the federal Climate Leaders program and encourage and assist the transition of our Partners into non-federal programs that our Partners choose to join.” (Click here to read the complete letter to the Partners).

I felt compelled to respond and sent the following note to Assistant EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, outlining my concerns.

Dear Assistant Administrator,

This is response to the email I just received announcing that EPA is winding down its Climate Leaders program. I felt strongly enough about this action that I wanted to share my reaction immediately. In my own opinion is EPA is making a mistake in closing down such an important and successful leadership program.

To access the full blog post, visit the Green Tie blog.