DALLAS — About a month before the AHR Expo, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated it would permit the industry to produce and import 39 million pounds of virgin HCFC-22 in 2013, down from 55 million pounds in 2012.
The number was not hard and fast, but early indications were that this would be the total amount of new R-22 the industry would be allowed to bring to the market. A foregone conclusion was an increase in cost of the refrigerant. But the question as to supplies through 2013 was not as certain.