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EPA proposes phasing down HFCs

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May 5, 2021

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed phasing down production of hydrofluorocarbons under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, according to a press release.

HFCs are greenhouse gases used in refrigerators, air conditioners and other applications. The AIM Act directs EPA to reduce production of these pollutants by using an allowance allocation and trading program. This process will decrease the production and import of HFCs in the U.S. by 85% over the next 15 years.

"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," EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in the press release.

The total emission reductions of the proposal from 2022 to 2050 are projected to amount to the equivalent of 4.7 billion metric tons of CO2 — nearly equal to three years of U.S. power sector emissions at 2019 levels.

The EPA's proposal would set the HFC production and consumption baseline levels from which reductions will be made, establish an initial methodology for allocating HFC allowances for 2022 and 2023, and create a compliance and enforcement system. The EPA intends to use the approach established through this rulemaking to issue allowances for 2022 by Oct.1, 2021 and plans to revisit the approach for subsequent years in a later rulemaking.

EPA will accept comments on this proposal for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register and hold a public hearing. The agency plans to finalize this rule later this year.