EPA Finalizes Rule to Accelerate American Leadership in Cutting Climate-Damaging Hydrofluorocarbons Used in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Equipment
Posted by [email protected] on Oct. 1, 2024
WASHINGTON – Sept. 23, 2024 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final rule to establish a new program to better manage, recycle, and reuse climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. The final rule includes provisions that will reduce wasteful leaks from large refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and will support American leadership and innovation in the development of clean solutions to tackle these dangerous heat-trapping emissions.
Today’s final rule, establishing the Emissions Reduction and Reclamation (ER&R) program, addresses the third part of the bipartisan AIM Act, and comes less than two years after President Biden signed the U.S. ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to phase down climate-damaging HFCs and help avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2100. By reducing leaks and promoting innovative reuse of existing HFCs, this final rule will help the
The final ER&R program includes requirements for repairing leaking equipment, the installation and use of automatic leak detection systems on large refrigeration systems, using reclaimed HFCs to service certain existing equipment, minimizing HFC releases from fire suppression equipment, fire suppression technician training, and removal of HFCs from disposable cylinders before they are discarded. The regulations also establish a standard that limits the amount of new, or virgin, HFCs that can be contained in reclaimed HFC refrigerants. Additionally, the EPA is establishing alternative standards under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for ignitable spent refrigerants when recycled for reuse.
The AIM Act authorizes EPA to address HFCs in three main ways, and EPA has now issued final rules to implement all three of these pillars: phasing down their production and consumption through an allowance allocation program – through which EPA is implementing a 40% reduction of HFCs that started this year; facilitating the transition to next-generation technologies through sector-based restrictions; and promulgating regulations for purposes of maximizing reclaiming and minimizing releases of HFCs from equipment and ensuring the safety of technicians and consumers.
