EPA Derails Super-Pollutant Phasedown
America’s affordability crisis won’t be affected by giving laggards a free pass to pollute.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed a phase down on the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). At a White House event today, the Trump administration is pretending that giving laggards a free pass to pollute will somehow affect consumer costs.
HFCs are potent climate-warming chemicals used primarily in heating and cooling equipment. The industry largely supported the previous standards. The “Technology Transitions rule,” adopted in 2023, had the potential to avoid emissions equivalent to hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide between now and 2050.
The following is a statement from David Doniger, Senior Strategist for Climate at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“The White House paints this as a way to address affordability; it is not. Shoppers will not notice any cost savings from this. The affordability crisis is very real and deserves real solutions, rather than thinly veiled environmental rollbacks that leave the United States stuck with outdated technologies of the past.
“The EPA is catering to a small group of straggling companies by derailing the shift away from these climate super-pollutants to safer alternatives. The industry at large supports the HFC phasedown and has already invested in making new refrigerants and equipment, currently installed in thousands of stores.
“This move is a lose-lose for the environment and the economy. It will harm consumers and the climate and reduce American competitiveness in the global markets emerging for environmentally-safer refrigerants and technologies compliant with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).