A bipartisan coalition of senators wants to give U.S. industry a path to implement a global deal limiting climate-warming refrigerant chemicals — even if the Trump administration won’t back that agreement for now.
A group of senators, led by Louisiana Republican John Kennedy and Delaware Democrat Tom Carper, introduced legislation Wednesday that would give the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, consistent with a global deal struck in 2016 to phase down the chemicals. And the bill, the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, is starting out with more than a dozen co-sponsors, with equal showing from both sides.
HFCs, commonly used as refrigerants, are potent greenhouse gases that are short-lived in the atmosphere but warm the earth at a rate hundreds of times faster than carbon dioxide.
The strong Republican support for the bill, obtained by the Washington Examiner, is a testament to the industry’s steadfast and united lobbying campaign.
U.S. appliance makers and chemical companies helped negotiate the global HFC deal, known as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. And they view it not only as a climate agreement but also an advantageous economic and trade policy.
That’s in part because U.S. companies have a leg up in the market for climate-friendly HFC replacements — and because the Kigali deal carries trade sanctions as a consequence for countries that don’t comply.
The Kigali deal is also somewhat of a rarity in Washington — particularly in the realm of climate and energy policy — because it has full-throated support from both industry and most environmentalists.
That message hasn’t sold the Trump administration on the deal yet, though. The White House has been largely silent on the agreement, which it would need to send to the Senate for ratification. The Kigali deal took effect in January, without the United States having signed on.
Thus, the industry sees the senators’ new bill as a significant step forward.
The bill “allows us to get more quickly into domestic implementation, stabilizing the market and encouraging the investment necessary to achieve” the Kigali goals, said Kevin Fay, executive director of the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy.
“But we haven’t changed our position in terms of support for ratification,” added Fay, whose group represents both appliance makers and chemical producers in the U.S.
The legislation builds on a smaller bill introduced by Kennedy and Carper last Congress that would have allowed the U.S. to implement the Kigali deal.
This time around, though, there was time to “add more meat to the bone,” Samantha Slater, vice president of government affairs for the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, told the Washington Examiner. This year’s bill is a “more comprehensive piece of legislation” that would authorize a new, targeted program for the EPA to regulate HFCs consistent with the Kigali timeline, she said.
Slater also said the bill doesn’t amend the Clean Air Act or reinvent the wheel but models the new HFC program off existing EPA programs that regulate ozone-depleting chemicals.
Industry groups are also hopeful that the bipartisan legislative effort could help make headway with the Trump administration.
The White House might not have an interest in sending the Kigali deal to the Senate for ratification, but Slater said there is interest within the administration in “considering a legislative pathway to achieving the same goals, and frankly, the same benefits.”
In fact, the EPA offered technical advice on the HFC legislation that was signed off on by both career and political staff over the summer when former air chief Bill Wehrum was still there.
The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute estimate the senators’ bill, by supporting Kigali implementation, could create 33,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs and protect 138,400 existing jobs through 2027, according to a fact sheet.
“We’re focusing on domestic implementation, which helps promote jobs, create trade benefits, and helps expand technology leadership, all of which are consistent with this administration’s goals for the economy,” Fay said.
Kennedy is joined on the bill by seven colleagues: John Boozman of Arkansas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Todd Young of Indiana, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Ed Markey from Massachusetts joined Carper in co-sponsoring.
