On March 12, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would be pursue “reconsideration” of its Technology Transitions rule, which accelerates the ongoing transition to more efficient and climate-safe cooling and heating technologies by restricting the use of HFCs.
The Technology Transitions rule, finalized in October 2023, is one of three pillars of the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. The rule bans HFCs in certain new equipment and establishes a limit on the GWP of the HFCs that can be used in each subsector, with compliance dates ranging from 2025 to 2028. It sets GWP limits of 150 for many refrigeration uses and 700 for air-conditioning and heat pumps.
But in its March 12 announcement the EPA said the Technology Transitions rule “forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing” and would thus be subjected to a new rule-making process.
The EPA’s announcement provoked a range of reactions from industry stakeholders, from dismay to gratitude. In the following interview, Gary Schrift, President of the International Institute of All-Natural Refrigeration (IIAR), weighs in with his assessment of the potential impact of a reconsideration of the Technology Transitions rule on the natural refrigeration industry.
Schrift, who has been IIAR President since April 2020, previously served in several roles at the GEA Group, a major manufacturer of refrigeration equipment for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors. He is leading IIAR as it encompasses the full range of natural refrigerants, beyond its traditional focus on ammonia (R717), and is addressing commercial as well as industrial applications.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
NaturalRefrigerants.com: Will the refrigeration/cooling/heating industry support a reconsideration of the Technology Transitions rule?
Gary Schrift: Any company devoted mostly to using natural refrigerants will not support it, and any company that is devoted to and has a history of using synthetics will like the news.
How will this affect natural refrigerant installations?
Even with the recent years of HFC phase-out legislation around the world, HFC use, as you know, greatly exceeds the use of natural refrigerants, especially in residential HVAC and small- to mid-size refrigeration applications. If manufacturers continue to build new equipment with HFCs or adopt HFOs only for their new equipment, that is probably what most contractors in this arena will use. So if and until the manufacturers of small- to mid-size HVAC&R equipment change solely to naturals – and to do this, the codes and laws have to allow for such – this effort to repeal the Technology Transitions rule by the EPA will be welcome by some.
Will this lead more states to take action?
Probably only the states that have already taken action that started during the first Trump term when he dropped out of the Paris climate agreement. But I don’t see more states moving forward. This does create a problem for manufacturers who are dealing with having to build equipment that can work in all states and for manufacturers who worry about the phase down of production of the HFCs. At this point, I haven’t seen any effort to change [the HFC phase-down part] of the AIM Act. So even if the Technology Transition rule is repealed, many manufacturers will still move towards HFO equipment, and some will move towards natural refrigerants if codes allow.
What are your members saying?
Too early to know. I find it fascinating how many persons in our industry (probably not unlike many industries) spend most of their time doing their “day job” and have very little time to dig into the details of legislative changes and their possible effects or to understand what new products exist in the rest of the world.
For example, I have talked with dozens of people in our industry who did not know that for the past five years, if you bought a new home refrigerator, the refrigerant would most likely be a natural refrigerant (isobutane). And that it has been this way in Europe since the late 1990s – well before this happened in the USA.
I suspect that, since most IIAR members do play in the natural refrigerants arena, they would not be happy to hear about this [reconsideration] effort. In fact, most probably are not aware of the efforts to repeal the AIM Act’s third rule on the measures existing HFC users need to add, such as leak detection and reporting of refrigerant loss. Nor are they aware of the efforts to roll back the EPA’s RMP changes made during the Biden administration.
The awareness of our members of such details and issues that may or may not have an immediate effect, even if they do have a long-term effect, is not surprising because I personally stood in their shoes prior to joining IIAR as a member. You go to work every day to design and quote on a natural refrigeration system or to get it installed or to fix a problem. And there is always a new natural refrigeration system to bid. So, unless and until the need for natural refrigeration systems drop, any governmental changes go unnoticed. The particular member group that often does notice such potential governmental changes are the consultants who play in the field of compliance. And based on their desire for safety, consistency in regulations, and because that is their job, I suspect they are or will be extremely unhappy if these rules are repealed.
“Any company devoted mostly to using natural refrigerants will not support [a reconsideration of the Technology Transitions rule].”
Gary Schrift, President of the IIAR
