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Regulatory Approaches to Reducing Fluorinated Gases

MCLI Recommendation: “The federal government should quickly ratify the Kigali Amendment either through an Executive Order based on existing authority to regulate HFCs under Title VI of the CAA or formal advice and consent by the U.S. Senate.”

LPDD Recommendation: “States or the federal government should restrict use of HFCs in building efficiency programs.”

LPDD Recommendation: “Barring further action by EPA, Congress could pass legislation amending Title VI of the CAA to explicitly cover HFCs.”

LPDD Recommendation: “EPA could reduce national HFC emissions from do-it-yourself mobile air conditioning by amending its existing rules to adopt California’s deposit and recycling program. In the absence of EPA action, states may do the same.”

LPDD Recommendation: “EPA should ban the sale of small cans (< 2 pounds) of HFC-134a for do-it-yourself service on personal mobile air conditioning altogether and only allow sales of refrigerant to certified technicians employed in shops with appropriate leak-detecting, recovery, and disposal equipment.”

LPDD Recommendation: “EPA should initiate a new rulemaking to support its partially vacated 2015 Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Rule.”

LPDD Recommendation: “State legislatures should adopt legislation mandating that state and local government agencies identify measures to reduce HFC emissions.”

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16 resources

Example Congress

Title VI of the Clean Air Act and NRER Program

Title VI of the Clean Air Act represents the primary regulatory authority to control HFCs, which includes the commitments in the Montreal Protocol. Title VI requires EPA to develop programs that prote...

Example Executive Branch

EPA and NHTSA’s CAFE Standards GHG Credits Program

EPA and the NHTSA’s CAFE Standards GHG Credits Program encourages automobile manufacturers and importers to replace HFC-134a in mobile A/Cs. The program’s 2012 standards provide credits to manufacture...

Resource Executive Branch

Executive Order 14008

EO 14088, one of the first Executive Orders signed during the Biden Administration, has been hailed as “a mini Green New Deal” in effect. It has several disparate provisions aimed at climate and clima...

Example States and State Governments

California’s Automotive Refrigerant Rules

California adopted regulations in 2009 to reduce emissions from DIY mobile A/C units in cars and pickup trucks, and also included a deposit and recycling program to ensure proper disposal of used refr...

Resource Foreign

UNEP Report, Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report

UNEP’s 2020 report highlights how reductions of between 210 and 460 billion tons of CO2 equivalent emissions can be delivered over the next four decades through actions to improve the cooling industry...

Example Executive Branch

EPA’s Emissions Reduction and Reclamation Program

In September, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final rule to establish the Emissions Reduction and Reclamation (ER&R) Program, which will help to better manage, recycle, and ...

Example Congress

HFC Cuts in COVID Relief Bill (2020) — Including Responsive EPA Proposals

In December 2020, Congress passed COVID relief legislation which included specific HFC measures. The legislation includes measures to direct spending to boost renewable energy and limit the use of HFC...

Example Executive Branch

California’s Sulfur Hexafluoride Regulations

California’s SF6 reduction program applies to all retailers and users of SF6 except for those using it for electric utility or semiconductor manufacture.

Example States and State Governments

California’s AB-32 and CARB’s Responsive Scoping Plan

California’s AB 32 requires a reduction in statewide GHG emissions, including HFCs, to 1990 levels, by 2020 (this target was strengthened by SB 1383 in 2016 to a 40% reduction in GHGs below 1990 level...

Example Congress

The Montreal Protocol and Kigali Amendment

The Montreal Protocol (1988) legally mandates the phaseout of the production and use of controlled ozone-depleting substances, setting phaseout obligations on a strictly enforced schedule. Parties mus...

Resource Executive Branch

Report, Climate Reregulation in a Biden Administration

This August 2020 report from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law charts a course for executive action that, under a new presidential administration, would reverse the deregulatory agenda of the Tr...

Resource States and State Governments

US Climate Alliance Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Challenge

The U.S. Climate Alliance, composed of 24 states representing 55% of the U.S. population and 60% of U.S. GDP, has committed to reducing short-lived climate pollutants, including HFC. The Alliance plan...

Example States and State Governments

California’s Refrigerant Management Program

California’s Refrigerant Management Program requires any owner-operator of a facility with stationary, nonresidential refrigeration systems using more than 50 pounds of high global warming potential r...

Resource Congress

Proposed Super Pollutants Act (2019)

This proposed 2019 legislation would reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) in the atmosphere by enabling federal agencies to set up a taskforce with businesses and non-profits to speed the ado...

Example States and State Governments

California Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy

The California State Legislature passed a law in 2014, codified at at Cal. Heath and Safety Code §39730.5, directing the California Air Resources Board to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce sh...

Resource Executive Branch

NRDC Report, US States Take the Lead in HFC Phasedown

NRDC’s 2019 report summarizes federal efforts to phase out HFCs, their shortcomings, and state efforts to fill the gap.