The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association is actively supporting bipartisan Senate legislation introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to deter metal theft.

While contractors are admittedly embracing this temporary sense of certainty, they’re still left with more questions than answers.

While some industry leaders and organizations are cooperating with the DOE to develop the standards, others claim fan and blower regulation is unnecessary, redundant, and could negatively impact the industry. 

Representatives from many of the industry’s manufacturers recently congregated in Washington, D.C., for two days of networking, lobbying, and discussing industry issues at this year’s annual Air-Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) Public Policy Symposium.

A chronological list of events involving the regional standards rulemaking process and subsequent lawsuit.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is reducing the amount of HCFC-22 that can be produced or imported to 62.8 million pounds in 2013. 

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is considering creating minimum efficiency standards for clean-water commercial and industrial pumps — and they’re calling on industry leaders, manufacturers, industry associations, and other organizations for input.

Ongoing discussions are currently underway, examining ways to incorporate HFCs into the protocol in order to phase down their use due to relatively high global warming potential (GWP).