Charles D. Jones Co. announced that Jon Melchi, director of government affairs for Heating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), will speak on the latest regulatory actions and legislative issues impacting the HVACR industry in a seminar at the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway.

In conjunction with the AHR Expo, DuPont made an announcement in regards to the ‘No Action Assurance’ letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) setting production and import rights for virgin R-22 at 39 million pounds in 2013 versus 55 million pounds in 2012.

It appears as if the spigot of new R-22 available to HVACR contractors has been tightened even more in 2013. Users of the world’s most popular HCFC could expect close to 30 percent less of new R-22 this year than last, according to some reports.

The EPA has sent “No Action Assurance” letters to the producers and importers of the refrigerants R-22 and R-142b, setting the 2013 production and consumption allocations for manufacturers of these gases. When compared to 2012, R-22 production will be reduced in the coming year, but the total reduction is still uncertain.

It has been an interesting — and complicated — year when it comes to refrigerants. The year began with cutbacks in HCFC production. We had expected there to be about 90 million pounds of virgin R-22 in 2012, down a bit from 2011. But the EPA proposed at the most 80 million pounds and at the least 55 million.