Carper Applauds Biden Administration’s Implementation of HFCs Legislation and Calls for Kigali Ratification

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today applauded the Biden administration’s steps to begin phasing down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), particularly the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule signing to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, a law Senator Carper authored with Senators Kennedy and Barrasso. Carper joined EPA Administrator Michael Regan for a virtual event marking the implementation of this landmark law he sponsored and called for continued action on HFC super pollutants, including by ratifying the Kigali Amendment.

“Today marks an important leap forward in our efforts to tackle the climate crisis and kick start our economy. Putting the AIM Act into action will create good-paying jobs for the American people and help position our nation for a brighter future. This is a slam dunk, plain and simple: phasing down HFCs will support American leadership in manufacturing and innovation, bring down global temperatures, strengthen our economy, and help save our planet,” said Carper.

He continued, “Now that the Biden administration is putting the AIM Act into action, there’s no reason to delay ratification of the Kigali Amendment. Let’s join the rest of the world as we phase down hydrofluorocarbons and lead this new era of climate action.”

Background

The AIM Act is among the most significant environmental laws enacted by the U.S. Congress in recent years—co-sponsored and passed with strong, bipartisan support. Backed by a broad coalition of industry and environmental groups, the law not only phases down HFCs along the timeline required under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, but it also ushers in the use of more climate-friendly and energy-efficient alternatives that will save consumers money while protecting the environment. American companies are at the forefront of developing HFC alternatives and the technologies that use them, and the AIM Act provides these companies additional opportunities to continue to innovate.

HFCs are extremely powerful greenhouse gases that accelerate climate change, some of which have more than 14,000 times the global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Climate change threatens society with costly health and environmental impacts such as floods, wildfires, drought, and increasingly severe weather events. EPA estimates that the present value of the cumulative net benefits of this action is $272.7 billion from 2022 through 2050 and that the final rule will yield cumulative compliance savings for industry. In 2036 alone, the year the final reduction step is made, this rule is expected to prevent the equivalent of 171 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions—roughly equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from one out of every seven vehicles registered in the United States. The total emission reductions of the rule from 2022 to 2050 are projected to amount to the equivalent of 4.6 billion metric tons of CO2—nearly equal to three years of U.S. power sector emissions at 2019 levels.