Last December, Congress passed the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, which gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to phase down HFCs to 15% of their baseline levels by 2036. Ever since then, the HVACR industry has been waiting anxiously to find out how EPA planned to implement the legislation.
Right on schedule, on September 23, EPA delivered its final rule, which established the HFC production and consumption baselines from which reductions must be made, codified the phasedown schedule (see Figure 1), and established an initial methodology for issuing allowances for 2022 and 2023. The rule also outlined how it planned to ensure compliance with the phasedown limits.