OLYMPIA — The state’s largest industrial manufacturers and owners of large fleets of vehicles will have to calculate and report the greenhouse gases they emit, under a new state proposal.

While some large manufacturers oppose the new rule, Alcoa — one of the only companies to be affected in North Central Washington — has been tracking greenhouse emissions for years.

Link Transit will also have to report the greenhouse gases that come from the 74 buses it operates around the region.

Proposed by the state Department of Ecology, any company or government that emits more than 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year from its plant or facility, or operates a fleet of vehicles that puts out more than 2,500 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year, would have to report its annual emissions.

Public comment will be taken until Nov. 12, and the new rule could become law next October. It grew out of a law the state Legislature passed last year.

Alcoa is one of 64 companies in Washington affected. J.R. Simplot and REC Solar Grade Silicon LLC in Moses Lake were also identified by Ecology as companies emitting more than 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually.

“We don’t have a lot of issues with it,” said Sharon Kanareff, spokeswoman for Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works.

Kanareff said the company chooses to participate in a climate registry, which independently verifies greenhouse gas emissions. She said Wenatchee Works, operating two potlines, reported just over 210,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions in 2008 to the national Climate Registry. In 1990, it had four potlines operating, but two of those lines would have averaged just over 338,000 metric tons, she said.

Kanareff said Alcoa’s initial goal was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all of its facilities by 25 percent by 2010. It met that goal in 2003, she said. She said the aluminum industry plans to be greenhouse gas neutral by 2030.

“As an employer, we value the environment in the communities we live and work in, and because we’re a global company, we recognize there are global consequences to manufacturing,” Kanareff said.

The state has no list of what fleets of vehicles will be affected, but Link Transit’s Maintenance Manager Todd Daniel said Link is over the threshold, and plans to begin reporting next year.

He estimated Link buses emit about 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually. But in the bigger picture, he said, mass transportation is one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Daniel said the real controversy in the new rule is not the reporting, but the goal behind it: carbon trading. Carbon trading is a system that sets up targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, then allows those that exceed the targets to sell their extra credits to those that don’t.

“We all want clean air and clean water,” he said. “If we move into carbon trading, it’s going to require a lot of administrative work, and that’s an extra burden.”

He said Link also is working to reduce its emissions. It won a $3 million grant from the federal Transit Administration to replace six buses with battery-operated ones. Those will produce no greenhouse gases, he said.

Ecology spokesman Seth Preston said some school districts, county governments and public utility districts may have to report emissions, if the rule is adopted.

Preston said as a general rule, if a fleet uses 240,000 gallons of diesel fuel, or 280,000 gallons of gasoline a year, they are probably included.

Kimberlee Craig, spokeswoman for the Chelan County PUD, said the utility falls under the reporting threshold, but is still working to reduce emissions.

The PUD’s vehicles now use biodiesel, she said. And it pioneered new technology to reduce the use of fuel when vehicles are idling, she said.

“We’re still trying to actively be as green as we can be,” she said.

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512

mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com