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<\/p>\nSacramento, CA…California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, leading a coalition of 16 states,\u00a0have filed formal comments against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) rollback of refrigerant management regulations that grew out of President Obama\u2019s Climate Action Plan. The regulations ensure the safe disposal and evacuation of refrigerants from appliances such industrial air conditioners and commercial cooling equipment, diligent record-keeping, the certification of technicians, appliance maintenance, and leak repair. Venting or releasing these refrigerants and their substitutes contribute to ozone depletion and climate change \u00ad- among the most severe environmental threats faced by modern human civilization.<\/p>\n
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\u201cU.S. Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler\u2019s proposal to rollback regulations that protect against global warming should be immediately withdrawn,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Becerra<\/b>. \u201cWheeler has once again abdicated the EPA\u2019s mission to protect\u00a0our health and the environment, by failing to oversee the use of harmful chemicals that will dramatically increase emissions and accelerate climate change. I demand that Wheeler act in the best interest of the public he is tasked to serve and immediately withdraw this illegal proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the Climate Action Plan, the Obama EPA extended the regulations to include systems that use hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as refrigerants in place of ozone-depleting refrigerants that the regulations already covered. Among other damaging impacts, ozone depletion is linked to skin cancer, cataracts, immune suppression, and respiratory disease, and it also leads to roughly $10\u201320 billion in annual crop losses. HFCs, which are increasingly used as substitute refrigerants, do not harm the ozone layer; but, they are extremely potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change with global warming potentials thousands of times greater than that of carbon dioxide. In 2016, the EPA estimated that extending these regulations to HFCs would prevent annual emissions of greenhouse gases equivalent to 7.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n
The comments filed today explain why the EPA\u2019s proposal is unreasonable, unjustifiable, imprudent, and should be immediately withdrawn.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the EPA proposal:<\/p>\n