US: Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce New Bill to Phase Out HFCs
At the end of October a bipartisan group of Senators led by Louisiana Senator John Kennedy introduced a new bill to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs were permitted as substitute refrigerants under the Montreal Protocol until 2016 when the multinational Kigali Agreement, of which the United States was a party, was signed. The phase out was sought because HFCs are a potent greenhouse gas. In anticipation of and in response to the Kigali Agreement, the US EPA issued a pair of rules that attempted to enshrine the phase out. However, multiple courts and the Trump administration opposed the phase out, gutting critical parts of the rules, and placing the effort in limbo. In response, multiple states, including Washington and California, passed their own legislation and regulations adopting the phase out. With this revived bipartisan effort, and a strong lobbying effort from interested industries, regulatory and legislative action should be anticipated in the near future.
Source:
Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce New Bill to Phase Out HFCs, S. 2745 October 2019.
