_200_200_90_s_c1.jpg)
In 2024, EPA promulgated a final rule, Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Management of Certain Hydrofluorocarbons and Substitutes Under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020. The 2024 Rule instituted leak-repair requirements for certain refrigerant-containing appliances containing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) or equivalents. HFCs are potent greenhouse gases (GHGs). EPA now apparently seeks to categorically exempt 360,000 road and intermodal container transport refrigeration units from the 2024 Rule’s leak-repair requirements. Our comments identify three legal flaws in the Proposed Rule:
- EPA violates the AIM Act by failing to adequately consider the climate costs of the Proposed Rule. The AIM Act requires EPA to consider costs when making threshold regulatory decisions. EPA nowhere acknowledges—let alone adequately considers—the climate costs of categorically excluding road and intermodal container TRUs from the 2024 Rule’s leak-repair requirements. This is so even though the Proposed Rule will increase HFC emissions, causing climate damages. Without adequately considering these costs, EPA cannot lawfully conclude that the Proposed Rule is “appropriate.”
- EPA acts arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to adequately consider the climate costs of the Proposed Rule. EPA ignores an important aspect of the problem by overlooking climate harms from the Proposed Rule. Even if it did consider such harms, EPA would be obligated to monetize them, which it also has not done.
- EPA acts arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to explain its changes of position concerning road and intermodal container TRUs and concerning the relevance of climate damages. The Proposed Rule offers no explanation for why EPA would exclude TRUs with charge sizes in excess of 15 pounds from coverage under the 2024 Rule. The Proposed Rule also does not acknowledge, let alone justify, EPA’s decision to overlook climate harms it considered extensively in the 2024 Rule.