The rules create a process for reducing the use of hydrofluorocarbons in cooling appliances, the first step toward meeting new mandates to cut their supply by 85% over 15 years, the EPA said. Congress passed with bipartisan support that mandate in December in provisions included in a $2 trillion spending and Covid-19 aid package.
The EPA formally proposed the rules required under the law in May. Thursday’s moves complete that process to make the rules final.
The rules would cut the equivalent of 4.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from 2022 through 2050, or almost three years of U.S. power-sector emissions at 2019 levels, the EPA said. That is down slightly from the May proposal, which estimated a reduction of 4.7 billion metric tons.
Biden administration officials didn’t detail changes from that proposal in a call with reporters. Agency Administrator Michael Regan said the agency’s review of public comments since the proposal was made strengthened the final rule, but he didn’t elaborate.
“It sends a signal to the rest of the world we are in, we are all in on climate change,” said Gina McCarthy, the White House national climate adviser.
The agency also downgraded how much it expected the rule to benefit the economy to $272 billion through 2050. In May it had estimated $284 billion in net benefits, including reduced compliance costs for the industry and public spending to deal with the consequences of climate change.
The rules have wide support from industry, largely from U.S. chemical makers that have spent billions of dollars developing alternative coolants to sell globally, and from retailers looking to reduce their contribution to climate change.
But there are concerns about the quality and availability of compliant new coolant chemicals, with some suppliers and customers warning that prices could rise if the new rules get ahead of developing technology. The industry group Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy has said consumer prices for appliances might eventually rise as much as about 2%, comparable to previous coolant phaseouts.
The phasedown is consistent with the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, an international agreement to phase out hydrofluorocarbons. President Biden still intends to seek Senate ratification for the treaty, Ms. McCarthy said, but she added that she had no timetable for that effort.
The new rules being completed Thursday are an early step under the law passed last year, setting only the outlines of the program and how to enforce it. They will include defined limits for the consumers of these chemicals by Oct. 1, and create a system for companies that might exceed the limits or have a surplus to trade with one another to stay in compliance.