8.3.2 Regulatory Approaches to Reducing Fluorinated Gases

LPDD 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.”

Executive Order 14008

President Biden's Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad targets clean electricity, federal vehicle fleets, frontline communities, HFC emissions, and fossil fuel leases and subsidies.

Proposed Super Pollutants Act (2019)

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 adoption of SLCP-reducing technologies and policies.

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 refrigerants to utilize best practices to reduce leakage and emissions.

California’s Automotive Refrigerant Rules

Program to reduce emissions from DIY mobile A/C units in cars and pickup trucks. Also included a deposit and recycling program to ensure proper disposal of used refrigerant cans.

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

AB 32 requires a reduction in statewide GHG emissions, including HFCs, to 1990 levels, by 2020, which target was strengthened by SB 1383 to a 40% reduction by 2030). CARB’s 2014 scoping plan identifies a number of actions to reduce HFC emissions.