EPA's Latest: Industry Saves $24 Million/Year; We Get GHG Equivalent Of 625,000 More Cars/Year
For the latest Trump Administration rollback of Environmental Protection Agency rules, the math goes something like this: The change will save businesses and industries $24 million a year. Earth's atmosphere, on the other hand, will receive emissions of pollutants equivalent to at least 625,000 new cars being added to the road.
This week, EPA Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler signed a new rule that relaxes the requirements that owners and operators of refrigeration equipment have leak detection and maintenance programs for hydrofluorocarbons, a set of refrigerants often referred to as "climate super-pollutants."
The rule change—the latest reversal of an Obama-era regulation—was part of the administration's agenda to ease burdens on industry. "We just think it's a baffling and wrong-headed move," said David Doniger, a senior strategic director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which opposed the rollback. "Considering there are thousands of facilities subject to these rules, [$24 million] is pocket change savings."
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One of the industry groups backing the Trump administration's rule change is the National Environmental Development Association's Clean Air Project, representing major companies such as Boeing, BP, Procter & Gamble, Lilly and Koch Industries. The law firm representing the association did not respond to a request by InsideClimate News for comment. But in written comments to the EPA, a lawyer representing the association called the Obama-era rule "arbitrary" and "punitive."
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27022020/epa-hfc-refrigerant-emissions-climate-hydrofluorocarbons-pollutant-andrew-wheeler
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