My dad used to love Westerns, and when I was a kid I remember him telling me you could always tell the good guys from the bad guys because the bad guys wore black hats. Of course, as you get older you realize that the world is rarely that simple and clear cut, and most issues are colored in shades of gray.
That crossed my mind the other day when I received a call from Matt Ritter, global business director of Arkema. Arkema is widely seen as wearing the black hat in the refrigeration industry right now, thanks to the lawsuit in which it and Mexichem Fluor petitioned a U.S. court of appeals to review the EPA’s 2015 rule in which HFCs were targeted under Section 612 of the Clean Air Act. The court ruled in Arkema and Mexichem’s favor, in the process striking down an Obama Administration regulation. Chemours, Honeywell, and the National Resources Defense Council have since petitioned the court for rehearing.