EPA is taking steps to usher in more climate-friendly consumer products that are free of super-polluting HFCs

WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency today proposed new rules that will accelerate the transition from super-polluting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to more climate-friendly alternatives for refrigeration, air conditioners, heat pumps, insulation and aerosols.

This welcome move by the EPA will accelerate the transition from high-performance climate-warming HFCs to next-generation alternatives in dozens of products consumers and businesses purchase, from aerosol cans to air conditioners and heat pumps, said Alex Hillbrand, a senior advocate with the Climate & Clean Energy and International programs at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). It’s a win-win: climate-warming emissions will drop significantly and consumers will get better, money-saving products.

The EPA action builds on petitions filed last year by NRDC and others calling for a specific ban on products that use HFCs. The petitions called on the agency to use the authority granted by Congress in the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, which took effect in December 2020, to keep appliances and other key products away from HFCs. Pound for pound, HFCs warm the climate hundreds to thousands of times more than carbon dioxide.

The EPA proposal covers a wide range of products and processes for which more climate-friendly alternatives are available. Under the new rule, products will be redesigned to use HFC-free alternatives or less harmful HFCs by 2025 or 2026.

These rules to keep products away from HFCs are in addition to the phase-out of the entire HFC supply under the AIM Act. Today’s move goes beyond what the law’s phase-out schedule requires, by avoiding additional HFC emissions equivalent to 134-903 million tons of carbon dioxide and saving consumers and industry an additional $5-8 billion through 2050.

Further background:

The AIM Act requires the EPA to phase out HFC production and import 85 percent over the next 15 years and ban the use of HFCs for which off-the-shelf alternatives are available. It also calls on EPA to issue regulations for the management and handling of HFCs, designed to limit their emissions and promote their recovery and reuse.

In April 2021, NRDC and other AIM Act allies filed an application petitions to move important end-uses away from HFCs in a timely manner. EPA granted those petitions in October 2021. The rule proposed today is the next step towards final rules to move dozens of products away from HFCs.

The petitions covered a wide range of end-uses, including refrigeration equipment such as commercial and residential refrigeration, automotive and building air conditioning, heat pumps, and other HFC applications such as aerosols and insulating foams. In addition to NRDC, petitioners from NGOs included the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. Additional petitions were filed by a California-led state coalition, as well as industry associations such as the Air-conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM).

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NRDC(Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international non-profit environmental organization with over 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists and other environmental specialists have been working to protect the world’s natural resources, public health and environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.organ and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.