The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy on June 25 petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review a final reconsideration rule revising the 2023 Technology Transitions Rule that was announced on May 21 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The final rule extend compliance deadlines by several years for the use of refrigerants with a GWP of less than 150 or 300 in supermarket systems, remote condensing units and cold storage warehouses, among other changes.
The revised rule allows new retail food supermarket equipment to use refrigerants with a maximum GWP of 1,400 beginning January 1, 2027, replacing the previous GWP limits of 150 or 300 (which depend on charge size and equipment configuration). On January 1, 2032, the 150 or 300 GWP limits will take effect.
The rule also lets new retail food remote condensing units to use refrigerants with a maximum GWP of 1,400 beginning 60 days after publication of the rule in the Federal Register, replacing the previous GWP limits of 150 or 300 that were scheduled to take effect January 1, 2026. On January 1, 2032, the 150 or 300 GWP limits will take effect.
The Technology Transitions is one of three parts of the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, enacted in 2020 with bipartisan and industry support. The others are the Emissions Reduction and Reclamation (ER&R) rule the phasedown of HFC production and imports.
“This rule works against basic supply and demand.”
Stephen Yurek, AHRI President and CEO
According to the petition, the trade groups seek review only of the portions of the final rule addressing remote condensing units (including the 60-day effective date) and supermarket systems on the ground that these portions of the final rule “are arbitrary and capricious, contrary to the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, and otherwise not in accordance with law.” The groups request that the court set aside those portions of the final rule.
Following the EPA’s announcement of the final reconsideration rule on May 21, the AHRI and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy said the rule increases the risk of higher prices by increasing the demand for existing refrigerants while reducing their supply, impacting refrigerant costs for supermarkets, commercial buildings and residential dwellings.
“This rule works against basic supply and demand,” said Stephen Yurek, AHRI President and CEO. “By extending the compliance deadline, the EPA is maintaining and even increasing demand in the market for existing refrigerants while supply continues to fall under the AIM Act. So, instead of falling, refrigerant prices are likely to rise, resulting in higher service costs, and higher costs for consumers.”
The groups also emphasized that the requirements did not apply to existing equipment. Supermarkets and other businesses could already keep using and servicing equipment they own. The requirements applied only to new equipment manufactured or imported after the transition dates.
The AHRI and the Alliance said the final rule also harms U.S. manufacturers that invested to meet the existing dates. Over the past several years, they said, manufacturers redesigned products, retooled factories, certified new equipment, expanded domestic production and trained workers to build and service next-generation refrigerant equipment.
Other trade groups challenge the EPA
Also on June 25, Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), Plumbing, Heating, Cooling Contractors – National Association (PHCC) and Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) announced they filed “a challenge” to parts of the EPA’s final reconsideration of the Technology Transitions Rule.
The joint petitioners said they strongly oppose the decision to extend deadlines for major commercial refrigeration applications, thereby allowing the continued manufacture of new systems using high-GWP refrigerants. The AIM Act requires a statutory phasedown of HFC supply across the economy, meaning quantities will continue to decline, while the final rule increases demand for refrigerants.
The provisions revisions revising the 2023 Technology Transitions Rule “increase demand for hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants in the supermarket, retail food, and cold storage sectors as the supply is being reduced by law, violating the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act and threatening to destabilize the refrigerant market,” the trade groups said.
“For the EPA to completely abandon the timelines for transitioning to next-generation products proposed by industry in 2021 misses the mark,” said Talbot Gee, CEO of HARDI. “The final reconsideration rule’s treatment of commercial refrigeration is legally flawed, economically reckless and directly at odds with the AIM Act. The EPA ignored industry data and over a decade of industry work to prepare for this transition, in violation of the AIM Act’s requirements.”
Taking the contrary position, FMI (the Food Industry Association), the primary trade group for U.S. supermarkets, supports the delays brought about by the reconsideration rule, arguing that the grocery industry needed additional time to transition its cooling systems to new technologies.
While opposing changes in the Technology Transitions Rule, AHRI and HARDI appealed a court decision in December rejecting their action to void updated Part 494 HFC regulations in New York, which are among the most ambitious in the U.S. The December decision came from the New York State Supreme Court, County of Albany, in a case brought by AHRI and HARDI against the New York State Department of Energy Conservation (NYSDEC).
Part 494 established a GWP20 (20-year) limit of 10 starting January 1, 2034, for new commercial and industrial systems with 50lbs (23kg) or more of refrigerant. (New York has since switched back to the more conventional 100-year GWP.) In May HARDI was granted a preliminary injunction that would halt a ban on bulk virgin sales of R404A and R507A until the outcome of the appeal is decided.
