CALIFORNIA COULD GET TOUGHER THAN THE FEDS ON SUPER GREENHOUSE GAS
2022-04-29
As the world gets hotter, staying cool becomes more important. Even here on the north coast air-conditioners are becoming more common. AC, refrigerators, and other cooling equipment use a refrigerant gas called hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) that traps thousands of times more heat than CO2. California is currently working on a bill to address the deadly loop of proliferating HFCs leading to higher temperatures, which lead to more HFCs.
350 Humboldt and 350 Silicon Valley have been working together on this issue, meeting with Senator McGuire and state regulators. We’re glad to endorse SB1206, authored by Senator Nancy Skinner. Her bill speeds up the federal timetable for phasing out HFCs that was established by the AIM Act in 2020. SB1206 would ban the sale of HFCs with a global warming potential (GWP) of more than 1400, starting in January of 2025. Phase two begins in January of 2030 when the GWP threshold would be lowered to 750.
SB1206 doesn’t stop there. It requires the Air Resources Board to prepare a plan for how to transition to natural alternatives — propane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide — by 2035. Now we’re talking about GWP scores of less than 15. But that part of the plan is in danger. Chemical companies such as Chemours are lobbying state legislators to remove from the bill any mention of “natural alternatives.” They are strongly opposed to natural refrigerants and are positioning hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), their latest generation of fluorinated gases, to be the anointed successor of HFCs.
Some HFOs do have an impressively low GWP, but they’re toxic and much more expensive than natural refrigerants. R-1234yf is a good example. Its formula includes carbon tetrachloride, a carcinogenic chemical that was becoming less common until R-1234yf was invented for use in automobile air-conditioning. Now carbon tetrachloride production is booming again.
The proposed California law doesn’t just speed up existing federal law but also limits its gift to the chemical companies in the form of an exemption for any HFC — no matter how high its GWP — that is blended with an HFO. A lot of refrigerant gasses are blends of HFC and HFO. So Chemours can gush about Opteon XP40 as a “proven” climate-friendly coolant even though its GWP is 1,282. That won’t fly in California after 2030 if SB1206 passes.
But recycled HFCs are exempted by SB1206 for two good reasons. One is to incentivize reclamation of the gas from equipment at the end of its useful life. Right now it’s all too common for such equipment to just get junked and emit their gas into the atmosphere. Also, the availability of recycled product can save owners from having to upgrade their equipment before the end of its usefulness.
Climate activists hope that California will not only pass SB1206 but strengthen it. One proposed amendment would provide for a statewide training and certification program for refrigerant technicians. Better refrigerant management could greatly reduce leakage. Annual refrigerant leaks in the United States are already responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all passenger aircraft travel in the US in 2019.
If SB1206 makes it to the floor, Senator McGuire will vote for it, but it faces plenty of opposition in other districts. So if you have friends and family in other parts of California, encourage them to contact their senators with the message that California should eliminate HFCs before they eliminate us.
350 Humboldt and 350 Silicon Valley have been working together on this issue, meeting with Senator McGuire and state regulators. We’re glad to endorse SB1206, authored by Senator Nancy Skinner. Her bill speeds up the federal timetable for phasing out HFCs that was established by the AIM Act in 2020. SB1206 would ban the sale of HFCs with a global warming potential (GWP) of more than 1400, starting in January of 2025. Phase two begins in January of 2030 when the GWP threshold would be lowered to 750.
SB1206 doesn’t stop there. It requires the Air Resources Board to prepare a plan for how to transition to natural alternatives — propane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide — by 2035. Now we’re talking about GWP scores of less than 15. But that part of the plan is in danger. Chemical companies such as Chemours are lobbying state legislators to remove from the bill any mention of “natural alternatives.” They are strongly opposed to natural refrigerants and are positioning hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), their latest generation of fluorinated gases, to be the anointed successor of HFCs.
Some HFOs do have an impressively low GWP, but they’re toxic and much more expensive than natural refrigerants. R-1234yf is a good example. Its formula includes carbon tetrachloride, a carcinogenic chemical that was becoming less common until R-1234yf was invented for use in automobile air-conditioning. Now carbon tetrachloride production is booming again.
The proposed California law doesn’t just speed up existing federal law but also limits its gift to the chemical companies in the form of an exemption for any HFC — no matter how high its GWP — that is blended with an HFO. A lot of refrigerant gasses are blends of HFC and HFO. So Chemours can gush about Opteon XP40 as a “proven” climate-friendly coolant even though its GWP is 1,282. That won’t fly in California after 2030 if SB1206 passes.
But recycled HFCs are exempted by SB1206 for two good reasons. One is to incentivize reclamation of the gas from equipment at the end of its useful life. Right now it’s all too common for such equipment to just get junked and emit their gas into the atmosphere. Also, the availability of recycled product can save owners from having to upgrade their equipment before the end of its usefulness.
Climate activists hope that California will not only pass SB1206 but strengthen it. One proposed amendment would provide for a statewide training and certification program for refrigerant technicians. Better refrigerant management could greatly reduce leakage. Annual refrigerant leaks in the United States are already responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all passenger aircraft travel in the US in 2019.
If SB1206 makes it to the floor, Senator McGuire will vote for it, but it faces plenty of opposition in other districts. So if you have friends and family in other parts of California, encourage them to contact their senators with the message that California should eliminate HFCs before they eliminate us.