Court Rules Against EPA SNAP Ruling

Two refrigerant manufacturers, Mexichem and Arkema, have successfully sued the EPA over their decision to start phasing out HFC refrigerants because of their global warming effect. The gist of the argument is that the law which established the EPA’s right to regulate refrigerants is specifically about ozone depletion, not global warming. The EPA’s legal right to regulate replacement refrigerants is limited to their effect on ozone depletion. The court ordered the EPA to redo their ruling with this in mind. Below are a couple of direct quotes from the ruling.

“The fundamental problem for EPA is that HFCs are not ozone-depleting substances, as all parties agree. Because HFCs are not ozone-depleting substances, Section 612 would not seem to grant EPA authority to require replacement of HFCs. Indeed, before 2015, EPA itself maintained that Section 612 did not grant authority to require replacement of nonozone-depleting substances such as HFCs.”

“EPA’s novel reading of Section 612 is inconsistent with the statute as written. Section 612 does not require (or give EPA authority to require) manufacturers to replace non-ozone depleting substances such as HFCs. We therefore vacate the 2015 Rule to the extent it requires manufacturers to replace HFCs, and we remand to EPA for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

The EPA still has to do their rewrite, and of course it is possible that they might choose to appeal to the supreme court. But for now, the HFC phase down has been phased out.

You can download the ruling and read it for yourself here:

https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/3EDC3D4817D618CF8525817600508EF4/$file/15-1328-1687707.pdf

Below are two links to other articles about this ruling.

http://r744.com/articles/7787/u_s_court_rules_hfcs_cannot_be_limited_by_current_epa_rules?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Bi-weekly+Newsletter

http://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/08/Court-strikes-down-US-restrictions-on-HFCs.html