Home » Press Releases » U.S. House of Representatives Introduces HFC Legislation

U.S. House of Representatives Introduces HFC Legislation

/

Legislation will create tens of thousands of new U.S. jobs 

Washington, DC — A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation on January 7th to phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used primarily in refrigeration, and to transition the U.S. to more climate-friendly substitutes.

Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Pete Olson (R-TX), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced the American Innovation and Manufacturing Leadership Act (AIM Leadership Act) (H.R. 5544) as a companion to legislation introduced in the Senate October 30th of last year. 

The Senate bill, the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (AIM Act) (S. 2754), was introduced by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and has since attracted significant bipartisan support, with 32 co-sponsors, divided evenly among Republicans and Democrats. 

“These bipartisan HFC bills in the House and the Senate send a powerful signal to the world that the U.S. will phase down HFCs along with the rest of the world,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development. “The House and Senate bills are virtually identical in establishing a federal regulatory framework for HFCs consistent with the phase down schedule in the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substance that Deplete the Ozone Layer.” 

Zaelke added, “the bills show  that Congress appreciates how much the HFC phasedown will benefit U.S. industry in terms of the tens of thousands of new jobs that will be created and the profits that would otherwise be lost to foreign competitors.”

An HFC phase down will create 33,000 new manufacturing jobs, increase direct manufacturing output by $12.5 billion, and increase the U.S. share of the global HVACR export market by 25%, according to a 2018 study by the Interindustry Forecasting at the University of Maryland.

Leaders of the House Energy & Commerce Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing on the bill on January 14th 2020.