Changes are on the horizon when it comes to refrigerant regulations, and here at CMS, we are dedicated to improving efficiency for all of our products and services. In this article, learn about the new regulations around HFC-related emissions and how these new rules may affect production, sales, and distribution for the industry as a whole.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The U.S. HVAC industry considered (and largely still considers) an HFC phasedown to be inevitable. Furthermore, it seemed possible to pursue that transition in a relatively calm and orderly fashion.
The U.S. would approve the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol, pursuing a comprehensive phasedown (not phaseout) schedule.
Following that, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) 20 and 21 regulations would take effect. And then a consistent national approach would emerge, and contractors and manufacturers would work through it.
Except none of that happened (yet, anyway).
So when these expected regulations became either abandoned (SNAP 20) or judicially embroiled (SNAP 21), the state of California picked up the guidelines for its own.
Now, with a quarter of 2019 already in the books, where do things stand in California? Are the refrigerant regulations unfolding in the Golden State likely to serve as a bellwether for a brave new disorganized world of domestic refrigerant use? How will that affect the industry as a whole?
Full Original Article published on ACHRNews.com.
