The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a rule on Monday aimed at limiting production of hydrofluorocarbons, the powerful greenhouse gases widely used in air conditioning and refrigeration, part of the Biden administration’s efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change.
“With this proposal, EPA is taking another significant step under President Biden’s ambitious agenda to address the climate crisis,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement Monday. “By phasing down HFCs, which can be hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, EPA is taking a major action to help keep global temperature rise in check.″
Regan said that the rule will aim to decrease U.S. production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, also known as HFCs, by 85% over the next 15 years.
The move to reduce HFCs enjoys bipartisan support, and builds on a bill passed by Congress in December with wide bipartisan support and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. The measure, known as the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, was hailed as the most significant climate change law in at least a decade.
The bill also promotes technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide produced by power and manufacturing plants and calls for reductions in diesel emissions by buses and other vehicles.
Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who pushed the HFC proposal alongside Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, praised the EPA’s rule in a statement: “Passing the AIM Act was a momentous climate achievement that will help save our planet, and today we are one step closer to its benefits being a reality.”
Carper also championed the fact that reducing HFCs by implementing the AIM Act would “create hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs that will combat climate change.”
Carper and Kennedy said that the bill would give U.S. companies the regulatory certainty needed to produce “next-generation” coolants as an alternative to HFCs. Both Kennedy and Carper represent states that are home to chemical companies that produce the alternative refrigerants.
Scientists believe that reducing the use of HFCs worldwide would avert 0.5 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2100.
“The U.S. Climate Alliance welcomes this next step from EPA to phase down highly potent HFCs across the country. National standards will ensure all communities have access to higher quality products, and that we are giving U.S. industry the best opportunity to innovate and lead the global transition to HFC alternatives,” said U.S. Climate Alliance Executive Director Julie Cerqueira. “Alliance states have been leading the charge in reducing HFC emissions in recent years and now have a strong federal partner in this push. It’s a win for jobs, a win for our economy and it will help us achieve our bold state and federal climate goals.”
The EPA estimates the proposed rule would save nearly $284 billion over the next three decades and prevent the equivalent of 187 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, roughly equal to annual greenhouse gas emissions from one out of every seven vehicles registered in the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
