On January 1, a new Environmental Protection Agency regulation quietly goes in effect that will require businesses of all types to monitor greenhouse emissions. According to the Chicago Tribune's The Swamp blog: The proposed regulation would apply to large-scale industrial sources of the heat-trapping gases which scientists blame for climate change but not to smaller sources, such as new schools, as some critics of EPA action had feared. It will force new - or substantially modified - industrial emitters to "demonstrate the use of best available control technologies and energy efficiency measures" to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.

The greenhouse gas regulatory system has a number of implications, particularly for publicly traded companies, says climate-change attorney Scott Deatherage, leader of  Thompson & Knight's Climate Change and Renewable Energy Practice Group. "The costs, financial disclosures and public relations aspects of this and other pending climate change legislation should be a strategic issue for corporate directors and managers." Although some industries had sought to delay the new requirements, facilities now have less than four months to prepare. "It may be a challenge for some businesses to make the significant investments in monitoring equipment and processes to meet that deadline."