Earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned EPA regulations which would have banned the use of R-134a in motor vehicle air conditions by model year 2021.
The ruling in the case Mexichem Flour, Inc. vs. EPA stated that EPA lacks authority to require companies to move away from a substance already approved.
Background
In the 1980's, there was an international movement to combat ozone layer depletion. During this time, the U.S., under Geroge H.W. Bush, made amendments to the Clean Air Act which would regulate ozone-depleting substances, and require manufacturers to replace them with substitutes.
Many manufactures used hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as an EPA-approved substitute for ozone-depleting substances in their products. While HFCs are greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, they are not considered ozone-depleting. But as the EPA learned more about greenhouse gases and their contribution to climate chance, the EPA, under Barack Obama, moved HFCs from the approved substitute list, to the prohibited substitute list.
