On July 16, 2009, the WCI published the Final Essential Requirements for Mandatory Reporting (the "ERs") to be implemented by the WCI Partner jurisdictions. On September 22, 2009, U.S. EPA adopted its final Mandatory Reporting Rule (the "EPA rule") for greenhouse gas emissions. On May 28, 2010, the WCI invited stakeholder comment on its proposal to harmonize the WCI ERs with the EPA rule for use in a cap-and-trade program.  

The WCI Partners acknowledged that the WCI proposal to harmonize with the EPA rule necessitated the development of revised ERs for use in Canadian jurisdictions to ensure harmonized quantification methods throughout the U.S. and Canadian WCI jurisdictions.  The Partners therefore directed the WCI Reporting Committee to develop amended Canadian ERs that are themselves harmonized with the proposed WCI ERs for use in U.S. jurisdictions.  

This document and its Appendices contain the WCI's proposal for revising and harmonizing the existing July 16, 2009 ERs for use in Canadian jurisdictions.  Unlike the WCI proposal to harmonize with the EPA rule, which takes the form of a markup of the EPA rule showing the WCI's changes to the EPA program, the proposed Canadian ERs take the form of a markup of the existing WCI ERs. The WCI anticipates that WCI jurisdictions in Canada will implement the harmonized ERs by adopting them into or through their reporting regulations.  

The WCI is also working on minor revisions to the general provisions of the ERs and the development of quantification methods for upstream oil and gas, natural gas transmission, distribution and storage, underground coal mine and magnesium production that are appropriate for use in the Canadian Partner jurisdictions.  

A stakeholder call to discuss the proposal will be hosted by the WCI during the week of September 27th.