AHRI and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy today expressed strong support for a bipartisan amendment introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Committee Ranking Democrat Tom Carper (D-Del.), and Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) filed as an amendment to the Senate Energy Bill introduced last spring by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Committee Ranking Democrat Joe Machin (D- W.V.).

The amendment is a bipartisan compromise based on the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (S. 2754), a bipartisan bill introduced last year by Senators Kennedy and Carper that would boost American manufacturing of next-generation refrigerant technologies, promote American innovation, and create tens of thousands of new domestic manufacturing jobs.

Enactment of the Barrasso-Carper-Kennedy amendment would settle the uncertain regulatory landscape facing the U.S. heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) industry by phasing down a class of refrigerants known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and allowing for a market- and consumer-friendly transition to new and better performing refrigerants and related products and equipment.

“This amendment brings us one step closer to implementing an HFC phasedown and reaping the substantial economic benefits associated with this transition to new refrigerant technologies,” said AHRI President and CEO Stephen Yurek. “The amendment will accomplish our industry’s refrigerant objectives while protecting consumers and providing significant economic and environmental benefits, and we are grateful to this bipartisan group of Senate leaders for their assistance and foresight.”

“We are appreciative of the strong bipartisan support for this legislation,” said Alliance Executive Director Kevin Fay, “as it provides for clear development of a uniform, federally-based HFC phasedown in the United States that will also enhance continued American technology leadership in our country as well as around the globe.” According to a 2018 study by Interindustry Forecasting at the University of Maryland (INFORUM), an HFC phasedown will create 33,000 new manufacturing jobs, and increase direct manufacturing output by $12.5 billion, increase the U.S. share of the global HVACR export market by 25 percent.