House GOP Urges EPA to Rescind 2024 Refrigerant Regulation

July 14, Washington, D.C. – Congressman Neal Dunn (Florida-02) sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on July 14 urging his Agency to reconsider a Biden-era EPA regulation on the management of refrigeration chemicals that will be devastating to American businesses. The midnight EPA Final Rule: Management of Certain Hydrofluorocarbons and Substitutes would require companies to spend billions in the coming years to comply with this new Rule, which is proven to have minimal environmental benefit. The Final Rule makes changes to the timeline for businesses to phase out Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) originally established under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020.

“American businesses are already beginning the process of phasing out HFCs by transitioning the next-generation technologies thanks to the requirements Congress put in place through the AIM Act,” said Congressman Dunn. “Unfortunately, the EPA’s Final Rule on HFCs moves up the timeline of the phaseout process considerably. The cost of this updated timeline will fall heaviest on small, American-run, and family-owned businesses that are already hurting from bureaucratic red tape, forcing them to pass down the cost to the consumer, resulting in higher grocery prices.

"We cannot allow the cost of this onerous Biden regulation to fall on American families and small business owners who can least afford it. I am optimistic that Administrator Zeldin will listen to the needs of American families and businesses by rescinding this Final Rule.”

Congressman Dunn was joined by Reps. August Pfluger (TX-11), Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), Laurel Lee (FL-15), Greg Steube (FL-17), Scott Franklin (FL-18), Craig Goldman (TX-12), Randy Weber (TX-14), Mike Cloud (TX-27), Mark Messmer (IN-08), and Derek Schmidt (KS-02).

How we got here:
In December 2020, Congress passed the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, authorizing the EPA to address hydrofluorocarbon emissions by providing new authorities for the Agency to phase out the production of the chemical, manage their substitutes, and facilitate the transition to next-generation technologies by 2036.

In October 2024, the EPA issued the EPA Final Rule: Management of Certain Hydrofluorocarbons and Substitutes under Subsection (h) of the American Innovation and Manufacturing (“AIM”) Act or the HFC Management Rule 89 Fed. Reg. 198. This Rule imposes expansive and unnecessarily burdensome requirements on how businesses must manage HFC servicing, repair, disposal, and installation of equipment not called for in the legislation and on a much more aggressive timeline than envisioned under the AIM Act.