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2020 National Emissions Inventory Technical
Support Document: Introduction


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EPA-454/D-23-001
January 2023

2020 National Emissions Inventory Technical Support Document: Introduction

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
Air Quality Assessment Division
Research Triangle Park, NC


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Contents

List of Tables	

Acronyms and Chemical Notations	

1	Introduction	1-

1.1	What data are included in the 2020 NEI release?	1-

1.2	What is included in this documentation?	1-2

1.2.1 Greenhouse gases reported in the NEI	1-2

1.3	Where can I obtain the 2020 NEI data?	1-2

1.3.1	Emission Inventory System Gateway	1-2

1.3.2	NEI main webpage	1-3

1.3.3	Modeling files	1-3

1.4	Why is the NEI created?	1-3

1.5	How is the NEI created?	1-4

1.6	Who are the target audiences for the 2020 NEI?	1-5

1.7	What are appropriate uses of the 2020 NEI and what are the caveats about the data?	1-6

List of Tables

Table 1-1: Point source reporting thresholds (potential to emit) for CAPs in the AERR	1-5

Table 1-2: Examples of major current uses of the NEI	1-6


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Acronyms and Chemical Notations

AEDT

Aviation Environmental Design Tool

AERR

Air Emissions Reporting Rule

APU

Auxiliary power unit

BEIS

Biogenics Emissions Inventory System

CI

Category 1 (commercial marine vessels)

C2

Category 2 (commercial marine vessels)

C3

Category 3 (commercial marine vessels)

CAMD

Clean Air Markets Division (of EPA Office of Air and Radiation)

CAP

Criteria Air Pollutant

CBM

Coal bed methane

CDL

Cropland Data Layer

CEC

North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation

CEM

Continuous Emissions Monitoring

CERR

Consolidated Emissions Reporting Rule

CFR

Code of Federal Regulations

CH4

Methane

CMU

Carnegie Mellon University

CMV

Commercial marine vessels

CNG

Compressed natural gas

CO

Carbon monoxide

C02

Carbon dioxide

CSV

Comma Separated Variable

E10

10% ethanol gasoline

EDMS

Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System

EF

emission factor

EGU

Electric Generating Utility

EIS

Emission Inventory System

EAF

Electric arc furnace

EF

Emission factor

El

Emissions Inventory

EIA

Energy Information Administration

EMFAC

Emission FACtor (model) - for California

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency

ERG

Eastern Research Group

ERTAC

Eastern Regional Technical Advisory Committee

FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

FACTS

Forest Service Activity Tracking System

FCCS

Fuel Characteristic Classification System

FETS

Fire Emissions Tracking System

FWS

United States Fish and Wildlife Service

FRS

Facility Registry System

GHG

Greenhouse gas

GIS

Geographic information systems

GSE

Ground support equipment

HAP

Hazardous Air Pollutant

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HCI

Hydrogen chloride (hydrochloric acid)

Hg

Mercury

HMS

Hazard Mapping System

ICR

Information collection request

l/M

Inspection and maintenance

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPM

Integrated Planning Model

LRTAP

Long-range Transboundarv Air Pollution

LTO

Landing and takeoff

LPG

Liquified Petroleum Gas

MARAMA

Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association

MATS

Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

MCIP

Meteoro 1 oe v-Chemistrv Interface Processor

MMT

Manure management train

MOBILE6

Mobile Source Emission Factor Model, version 6

MODIS

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MOVES

Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator

MW

Megawatts

MWC

Municipal waste combustors

NAA

Nonattainment area

NAAQS

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

NAICS

North American Industry Classification System

NASS

USDA National Agriculture Statistical Service

NATA

National Air Toxics Assessment

NCD

National County Database

NEEDS

National Electric Energy Data System (database)

NEI

National Emissions Inventory

NESCAUM

Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management

NFEI

National Fire Emissions Inventory

NG

Natural gas

NH3

Ammonia

NMIM

National Mobile Inventory Model

NO

Nitrous oxide

N02

Nitrogen dioxide

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOx

Nitrogen oxides

03

Ozone

OAQPS

Office of Air Quality Standards and Planning (of EPA)

OEI

Office of Environmental Information (of EPA)

ORIS

Office of Regulatory Information Systems

OTAQ

Office of Transportation and Air Quality (of EPA)

PADD

Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts

PAH

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Pb

Lead

PCB

Polychlorinated biphenyl

PFAS

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

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PM

Particulate matter

PM25-CON

Condensable PM2.5

PM25-FIL

Filterable PM2.5

PM25-PRI

Primary PM2.5 (condensable plus filterable)

PM2.5

Particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter, synonymous with PM25-PRI

PM10

Particular matter 10 microns or less in diameter, synonymous with PM10-PRI

PMIO-FIL

Filterable PM10

PMIO-PRI

Primary PM10 (condensable plus filterable)

POM

Polycyclic organic matter

POTW

Publicly Owned Treatment Works

PSC

Program system code (in EIS)

RFG

Reformulated gasoline

RPD

Rate per distance

RPP

Rate per profile

RPV

Rate per vehicle

RVP

Reid Vapor Pressure

Rx

Prescribed (fire)

see

Source classification code

SEDS

State Energy Data System

SFvl

SMARTFIRE version 1

SFv2

SMARTFIRE version 2

S/L/T

State, local, and tribal (agencies)

SMARTFIRE

Satellite Mapping Automated Reanalvsis Tool for Fire Incident Reconciliation

SMOKE

Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions

SO 2

Sulfur dioxide

S04

Sulfate

TAF

Terminal Area Forecasts

TRI

Toxics Release Inventory

UNEP

United Nations Environment Programme

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

USDA

United States Department of Agriculture

VMT

Vehicle miles traveled

VOC

Volatile organic compounds

USFS

United States Forest Service

WebFIRE

Factor Information Retrieval System

WLF

Wildland fire

WRAP

Western Regional Air Partnership

WRF

Weather Research and Forecasting Model

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1 Introduction

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the complete 2020 National Emissions Inventory (NEI).
The 2020 NEI is available on the web at the 2020 NEI Data page. This is the first, and final planned public release
of the 2020 NEI.

1.1 What data are included in the 2020 NEI release?

The NEI is a national compilation of air emission estimates of criteria air pollutants (CAPs), the precursors of
CAPs, and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). The hazardous air pollutants that are included in the NEI are based
on Section 112(b) of the Clean Air Act. State, local and tribal (S/L/T) air agencies submit emission estimates to
EPA and the Agency adds information from EPA emissions programs, such as the emission trading program,
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), and data collected during rule development or compliance testing. The NEI
includes estimates of emissions from stationary sources (large and small industries, commercial, institutional
and consumer), mobile sources, fires and biogenic emissions. EPA uses the NEI in rule development, non-
attainment area designations, and as an input to various reports and assessments. This document discusses all
components of the NEI and where useful, highlights differences between the 2020 NEI and the most-recent
publicly-available full NEI release, the 2017 NEI. The NEI program develops datasets, blends data from these
multiple sources, and performs data processing steps that further enhance, quality assure, and augment the
compiled data.

The emissions data in the NEI are compiled at different levels of granularity, depending on the data category. For
point sources (in general, large facilities), emissions are inventoried at a process-level within a facility. The point
data are collected from S/L/T air agencies and the EPA emissions programs including the Toxics Release
Inventory, the Acid Rain Program, and the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. For nonpoint sources (typically
smaller, yet pervasive sources) and mobile sources (both onroad and nonroad), emissions are given as county
totals. For marine vessel and railroad in-transit sources, emissions are given at the sub-county polygon shape-
level. For wildfires and prescribed burning, the data are compiled as day-specific, coordinate-specific (similar to
point) events for both smoldering and flaiming components, but in a change from the 2017 NEI in which these
were categorized in an "event" portion of the inventory, these emission estimates are now aggregated to county
totals for the 2020 NEI.

The pollutants included in the NEI are the pollutants associated with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS), known as CAPs, HAPs associated with EPA's Air Toxics Program, and new for 2020, per- and
polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) compounds. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are also included in the NEI for fires, mobiles
sources, and point sources where reported. The CAPs have ambient concentration limits or are precursors for
pollutants with such limits from the NAAQS program. These pollutants include lead (Pb), carbon monoxide (CO),
nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), sulfur dioxide (S02), particulate matter 10 microns or
less (PM10), particulate matter 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5), and ammonia (NH3), which is technically not a CAP,
but an important PM precursor. The HAP pollutants include the 187 remaining HAP pollutants (methyl ethyl
ketone was removed prior to the 2017 NEI) from the original 188 listed in Section 112(b) of the 1990 Clean Air
Act Amendments1. There are many different types of HAPs. For example, some are acid gases such as
hydrochloric acid (HCI); others are heavy metals such as mercury (Hg), nickel and cadmium; and others are
organic compounds such as benzene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde.

1 The original of HAPs is available on the EPA Technology Transfer Network - Air Toxics Web Site.

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1.2	What is included in this documentation?

This technical support document (TSD) provides a reference for the January 2023 release of the 2020 NEI. The
January 2023 release documents the availability of the Point, Onroad, and Nonroad data categories of the 2020
NEI, each provided as a separate document. Additional documents will be provided by March 31, 2023 to
include the release of the Nonpoint data category and EPA methodology for each nonpoint tool. This
Introduction document and the Overview document will also be updated by March 31, 2023 to reflect the
availability of the nonpoint data, mercury summaries, and include summary data across all data categories.

The primary purpose of this document is to explain the sources of information included in the inventory. This
includes showing the sources of data and types of sources that are used for each data category, and then
providing more information about the EPA-created components of the data. After the introductory material
included in this section, Section 2 provides an overview of the contents of the inventory and after the full NEI
release in March, some high-level summaries relevant to the Point, Onroad, and Nonroad data categoires,
including comparisons to the 2017 NEI. Section 2 will be updated in March 2023 to also provide a summary on
the mercury emissions. Section 3 provides an overview of point sources. Sections 4 and 5 provide information
for the nonroad mobile and onroad mobile data categories, respectively. Sections 6 and beyond will be provided
in March 2023 with the release of the nonpoint data category, including Fires (wild, prescribed, and agricultural
field burning), and EPA methods for computing several nonpoint source categories, including but not limited to:
biogenics, oil and gas production, residential wood combustion, nonpoint industrial and
commercial/institutional fuel combustion, solvents utilization, commercial cooking, open burning, agricultural
livestock waste and fertilizer application, and fugitive dust sources.

1.2.1 Greenhouse gases reported in the NEI

The NEI includes estimates of greenhouse gases (GHGs), due to availability of these data when modeling
CAPS/HAPS. EPA's Invento rv of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks provides official data on national
greenhouse gas emissions and sinks, including GHGs from the transportation sector. The US greenhouse gas
inventory (GHGI) uses internationally accepted methods outlined in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) guidance and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reporting guidelines to
comprehensively estimate and report national GHG emissions from the U.S. transportation sector, including
highway and nonroad mobile sources, using fuel consumption data from ElA's national-level energy statistics.
Recently, the EPA has also used peer-reviewed methods to further downscale the national GHGI by state and
provide state-level GHG estimates. These are further described in the methodology report underlying those
estimates and are available on the State GHG Emissions and Removals page to the GHG Emissions Removals
home page.

1.3	Where can I obtain the 2020 NEI data?

The 2020 NEI data are available in several different ways listed below. Data are available to the reporting
agencies and EPA staff via the Emission Inventory System (EIS).

1.3.1 Emission Inventory System Gateway

The EIS Gateway is available to all EPA staff, EIS data submitters (i.e., the S/L/T air agency staff), Regional
Planning Organization staff that support state, local and tribal agencies, and contractors working for the EPA on
emissions related work. The EIS reports functions can be used to obtain raw input datasets and create summary
files from these datasets as well as older versions of the NEI such as 2017, 2014, 2011, and 2008. The 2020 NEI
dataset in the EIS is called "2020NEI". Note that if you run facility-, unit- or process-level reports in the EIS, you

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will get the 2020 NEI emissions, but the facility inventory, which is dynamic in the EIS, will reflect more current
information. For example, if an Agency ID has been changed since the moment we ran the reports for the public
website (January 26, 2023), then that new Agency ID will be in the Facility Inventory or a Facility Configuration
report in the EIS but not in the report on the public website nor the Facility Emissions Summary reports run on
the "2020NEI" dataset in the EIS.

1.3.2	NEI main webpage

Next, data from the EIS are exported for public release on the 2020 NEI Data webpage. The 2020 NEI Data page
includes the most recent publicly-available version of the 2020 NEI. The 2020 NEI webpage includes the 2020
NEI plan and schedules, all publicly-available supporting materials by inventory data category (e.g., point,
nonroad mobile, onroad mobile, and nonpoint by March 31, 2023), and this TSD.

Two types of point data summaries are available on the 2020 NEI Data page, facility summaries and process-
level summaries. The source classification codes (SCC) data files section of the webpage provides the process
level summaries for all data categories. These detailed CSV files (provided in zip files) contain emissions at the
process level. Due to their size, they are broken out into EPA regions. Facility-level by pollutant summaries are
also available. These CSV files must be "linked" (as opposed to imported) to open them with Microsoft® Access®.
County and tribe-level summaries for events are also provided.

With the final 2020 NEI release by March 31, 2023, the 2020 NEI Data page will also include a query tool that will
allow for summaries by EIS Sector or the more traditional Tier 1 summary level (for CAPs only) used in the EPA
Trends Report. Summaries from the 2020 NEI Data site will include national-, state-, and county-level emissions
for CAPs, HAPs and GHGs. You will be able to choose which states, EIS Sectors, Tiers, and pollutants to include in
custom-generated reports to download Comma Separated Value (CSV) files to import into Microsoft® Excel®,
Access®, or other spreadsheet or database tools. Biogenic emissions and tribal data (but not tribal onroad
emissions) will also be available from this tool. Tribal summaries are also posted under the "Additional Summary
Data" section of this page.

The 2020 NEI Documentation page includes links to the 2020 NEI TSD and supporting materials referenced in
this TSD. This page is a working page, meaning that content is updated as new products are developed.

1.3.3	Modeling files

The modeling files, provided on the Air Emissions Modeling website, are provided in formats that can be read by
the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE). These files are also CSV formats that can be read by
other systems, such as databases. The modeling files provide the process-level emissions apportioned to release
points, and the release parameters for the release points. Release parameters include stack height, stack exit
diameter, exit temperature, exit velocity and flow rate. The EPA may make changes to the NEI modeling files
prior to use. The 2020 modeling platform has not yet been developed, but would be based on the 2020 NEI if it
is. Any changes between the NEI and modeling platform data would be described in an accompanying TSD for
the 2020 Emissions Modeling Platform, which would also be posted at the above website.

The SMOKE flat files for the 2020 NEI are/will be posted on the 2020 NEI Flat Files FTP site.

1.4 Why is the NEI created?

The NEI is created to provide the EPA, federal, state, local and tribal decision makers, and the national and
international public the best and most complete estimates of CAP and HAP emissions. While the EPA is not
directly obligated to create the NEI, the Clean Air Act authorizes the EPA Administrator to implement data

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collection efforts needed to properly administer the NAAQS program. Therefore, the Office of Air Quality
Planning and Standards (OAQPS) maintains the NEI program in support of the NAAQS. Furthermore, the Clean
Air Act requires States to submit emissions to the EPA as part of their State Implementation Plans (SIPs) that
describe how they will attain the NAAQS. The NEI is used as a starting point for many SIP inventory development
efforts and for states to obtain emissions from other states needed for their modeled attainment
demonstrations.

While the NAAQS program is the basis on which the EPA collects CAP emissions from the S/L/T air agencies, it
does not require collection of HAP emissions. For this reason, the HAP reporting requirements are voluntary.
Nevertheless, the HAP emissions are an essential part of the NEI program. These emissions estimates allow EPA
to assess progress in meeting HAP reduction goals described in the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990. These
reductions seek to reduce the negative impacts to people of HAP emissions in the environment, and the NEI
allows the EPA to assess how much emissions have been reduced since 1990.

1.5 How is the NEI created?

The Air Emissions Reporting Rule (AERR) is the regulation that requires state and local agencies to submit CAP
emissions, and the Emissions Inventory System is the data system used to collect, QA, and compile those
submittals as well as EPA augmentation data. Most S/L/T air agencies also provide voluntary submissions of HAP
emissions. The 2008 NEI was the first inventory compiled using the AERR, rather than its predecessor, the
Consolidated Emissions Reporting Rule (CERR). The 2020 NEI is the fifth AERR-based inventory, and
improvements in the 2020 NEI process reflect lessons learned by the S/L/T air agencies and EPA from the prior
NEI efforts. The AERR requires agencies to report all sources of emissions, except fires and biogenic sources.
Reporting of open fire sources, such as wildfires, is encouraged, but not required. Sources are divided into large
groups called "data categories": stationary sources are "point" or "nonpoint" (county totals) and mobile sources
are either onroad (cars and trucks driven on roads) or nonroad (locomotives, aircraft, marine, off-road vehicles
and nonroad equipment such as lawn and garden equipment).

The AERR has emissions thresholds above which States must report stationary emissions as "point" sources,
with the remainder of the stationary emissions reported as "nonpoint" sources.

The AERR changed the way these reporting thresholds work, as compared to the CERR, by changing these
thresholds to "potential to emit" thresholds rather than actual emissions thresholds. In both the CERR and the
AERR, the emissions that are reported are actual emissions, despite that the criteria for which sources to report
is now based on potential emissions. The AERR requires emissions reporting for point sources every year, with
additional requirements every third year in the form of lower point source emissions thresholds, and 2020 is one
of these third-year inventories.

Table 1-1 provides the potential-to-emit reporting thresholds that applied for the 2020 NEI cycle. "Type B" is the
terminology in the rule that represents the lower emissions thresholds required for point sources in the triennial
years. The reporting thresholds are sources with potential to emit of 100 tons/year or more for most criteria
pollutants, with the exceptions of CO (1000 tons/year), and, updated starting with the 2014 inventory, Pb (0.5
tons/year, actual emissions). As shown in the table, special requirements apply to nonattainment area (NAA)
sources, where even lower thresholds apply. The relevant ozone (03), CO, and PM10 nonattainment areas that
applied during the year that the S/L/T agencies submitted their data for the 2020 NEI are available on the
Nonattainment Areas for Criteria Pollutants (Green Book) web site. Note that while the AERR establishes the
minimum requirements for State and local air agencies to report their stationary sources as discrete point

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sources, many agencies have gone beyond those minimums for many years past, i.e., they report many smaller-
emitting sources as discrete point sources.

Table 1-1: Point source reporting thresholds (potential to emit) for CAPs in the AERR

Pollutant

Triennial reporting thresholds1

Type B Sources

Thresholds within Nonattainment Areas

(1) SO 2

>100

>100

(2) VOC

>100

03 (moderate) > 100



03 (serious) > 50



03 (severe) > 25



03 (extreme) > 10

(3) NOx

>100

>100

(4) CO

>1000

03 (all areas) > 100

CO (all areas) > 100

(5)Lead

>0.5 (actual)

>0.5 (actual)

(6) Primary PM10

>100

PM10 (moderate) >100

PM10 (serious) >70

(7) Primary
PM2.5

>100

>100

(8) NH3

>100

>100

thresholds for point source determination shown in tons per year of potential to emit as
defined in 40 CFR part 70, with the exception of lead.

Based on the AERR requirements, S/L/T air agencies submit emissions or model inputs of point, nonpoint,
onroad mobile, nonroad mobile, and fires emissions sources. With the exception of California, reporting
agencies were required to submit model inputs for onroad and nonroad mobile sources instead of emissions.
For the 2020 NEI, all these emissions and inputs were required to be submitted to the EPA per the AERR by
December 31, 2021 (with an extension given through January 15, 2022). Once the initial reporting NEI period
closed, the EPA provided feedback on data quality such as suspected outliers and missing data by comparing to
previously established emissions ranges and past inventories. In addition, the EPA augmented the S/L/T data
using various sources of data and augmentation procedures. This documentation provides a detailed account of
EPA's quality assurance and augmentation methods.

1.6 Who are the target audiences for the 2020 NEI?

The comprehensive nature of the NEI allows for many uses and, therefore, its target audiences include EPA staff
and policy makers, the U.S. public, other federal and S/L/T decision makers, and other countries. Table 1-2 lists
the major current uses of the NEI and the plans for use of the 2020 NEI in those efforts. These uses include those
by the EPA in support of the NAAQS, Air Toxics, and other programs as well as uses by other federal and regional
agencies and for international needs. In addition to this list, the NEI is used to respond to Congressional
inquiries, provide data that supports university research, and allow environmental groups to understand sources
of air pollution.

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Table 1-2: Examples of major current uses of the NEI

Audience

Purposes

U.S. Public

Learn about sources of air emissions

EPA - NAAQS

Regulatory Impact Analysis - benefits estimates using air quality modeling

NAAQS Implementations, including State Implementation Plans (SIPs)

Monitoring Rules

Final NAAQS designations

NAAQS Policy Assessments

Integrated Science Assessments

Transport Rule air quality modeling (e.g., Clean Air Interstate Rule, Cross-State Air Pollution Rule)

EPA-Air toxics

Air Toxics Screening Assessments

Mercury and Air Toxics Standard - mercury risk assessment and Regulatory Impact Assessment

National Monitoring Programs Annual Report

Toxicity Weighted emission trends for the Government Performance and Reporting Act (GPRA)

Residual Risk and Technology Review - starting point for inventory development

EPA-other

NEI Reports - analysis of emissions inventory data

Report on the Environment

Air Emissions website for providing graphical access to CAP emissions for state maps and Google
Earth views of facility total emissions

Department of Transportation, national transportation sector summaries of CAPs

Black Carbon Report to Congress

Other federal or
regional agencies

Modeling in support of Regional Haze SIPs and other air quality issues

International

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - global and North American Assessments

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - environmental data and
indicators report

UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) - emission reporting
requirements, air quality modeling, and science assessments

Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) - science network for earth system, climate, and
atmospheric modeling

Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) - North American emissions inventory
improvement and reduction policies

U.S. and Canada Air Quality Reports

Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP) - national environmental and emission reduction
strategy for the Arctic Region

Other outside
parties

Researchers and graduate students

1.7 What are appropriate uses of the 2020 NEI and what are the caveats about the data?

As shown in the preceding section, the NEI provides a readily available comprehensive inventory of both CAP
and HAP emissions to meet a variety of user needs. Although the accuracy of individual emissions estimates will
vary from facility-to-facility or county-to-county, the NEI largely meets the needs of these users in the aggregate.
Some NEI users may wish to evaluate and revise the emission estimates for specific pollutants from specific
source types for either the entire U.S. or for smaller geographical areas to meet their needs. Regulatory uses of
the NEI by the EPA, such as for interstate transport, always include a public review and comment period. Large-
scale assessment uses, such as the NATA study, also provide review periods and can serve as an effective
screening tool for identifying potential risks.

One of the primary goals of the NEI is to provide the best assessment of current emissions levels using the data,
tools and methods currently available. For significant emissions sectors of key pollutants, the available data,

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tools and methods typically evolve over time in response to identified deficiencies and the need to understand
the costs and benefits of proposed emissions reductions. As these method improvements have been made,
there have not been consistent efforts to revise previous NEI year estimates to use the same methods as the
current year. Therefore, care must be taken when reviewing different NEI year publications as a time series with
the goal of determining the trend or difference in emissions from year to year. An example of such a method
change in the 2008 NEI v3 and 2011 NEI is the use of the Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) model for
the onroad data category. Previous NEI years had used the Mobile Source Emission Factor Model, version 6
(MOBILES) and earlier versions of the MOBILE model for this data category. The 2011 NEI (2011v2) also used an
older version of MOVES (2014) that has been updated again in the current 2020 NEI (MOVES3).

Other significant emissions sectors in the nonpoint data category have also had improvements and will be
discussed when the nonpoint data category is complete March 31, 2023.

Users should take caution in using the emissions data for filterable and condensable components of particulate
matter (PM10-FIL, PM2.5-FIL and PM-CON), which is not complete and should not be used at any aggregated
level. These data are provided for users who wish to better understand the components of the primary PM
species, where they are available, in the disaggregated, process-specific emissions reports. Where not reported
by S/L/T agencies, the EPA augments these components, and discussed in the overview section of this TSD.
However, not all sources are covered by this routine, and in mobile source and fire models, only the primary
particulate species are estimated. Thus, users interested in PM emissions should use the primary species of
particulate matter (PM10-PRI and PM25-PRI), described in this document simply as PM10 and PM2.5.

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United States	Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards	Publication No. EPA-454/D-23-001

Environmental Protection	Air Quality Assessment Division	January 2023

Agency	Research Triangle Park, NC


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