Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Vacated Provisions

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 84</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OAR-2024-0065; FRL-11597-01-OAR]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2060-AW15</RIN> <SUBJECT>Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Vacated Provisions</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking final action to remove regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations that have been vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit related to the prohibition of disposable cylinders and tracking of cylinders of hydrofluorocarbons. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on September 11, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2024-0065. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> website. Although listed in the index, some information may not be publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard-copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available electronically through <E T="03">http://www.regulations.gov.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Connor Henderson, Stratospheric Protection Division and Office of Air and Radiation (6205A), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: 202-564-2177; email address: <E T="03">Henderson.Connor@epa.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Does this action apply to me?</HD> This action may be relevant for you if you produce, import, export, destroy, use as a feedstock or process agent, reclaim, or recycle HFCs. Potentially relevant categories, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, and examples of potentially relevant entities are included in table 1. This table is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather provides a guide for readers regarding entities that may be interested in this action. If you have questions regarding the relevance of this action to a particular entity, consult the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L2,i1" CDEF="s50,r150"> <TTITLE>Table 1—NAICS Classification of Potentially Relevant Entities</TTITLE> <CHED H="1">NAICS Code</CHED> <CHED H="1">NAICS industry description</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">325120</ENT> <ENT>Industrial Gas Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">325199</ENT> <ENT>All Other Basic Organic Chemical Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">325211</ENT> <ENT>Plastics Material and Resin Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">325412</ENT> <ENT>Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">325414</ENT> <ENT>Biological Product (except Diagnostic) Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">325998</ENT> <ENT>All Other Miscellaneous Chemical Product and Preparation Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">326220</ENT> <ENT>Rubber and Plastics Hoses and Belting Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">326150</ENT> <ENT>Urethane and Other Foam Product.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">326299</ENT> <ENT>All Other Rubber Product Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">333415</ENT> <ENT>Air-Conditioning and Warm Air Heating Equipment and Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration Equipment Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">333511</ENT> <ENT>Industrial Mold Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">334413</ENT> <ENT>Semiconductor and Related Device Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">334419</ENT> <ENT>Other Electronic Component Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">334510</ENT> <ENT>Electromedical and Electrotherapeutic Apparatus Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">336212</ENT> <ENT>Truck Trailer Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">336214</ENT> <ENT>Travel Trailer and Camper Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">336411</ENT> <ENT>Aircraft Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">336611</ENT> <ENT>Ship Building and Repairing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">336612</ENT> <ENT>Boat Building.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">339112</ENT> <ENT>Surgical and Medical Instrument Manufacturing.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">423720</ENT> <ENT>Plumbing and Heating Equipment and Supplies (Hydronics) Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">423730</ENT> <ENT>Warm Air Heating and Air-Conditioning Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">423740</ENT> <ENT>Refrigeration Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">423830</ENT> <ENT>Industrial Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">423840</ENT> <ENT>Industrial Supplies Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">423860</ENT> <ENT>Transportation Equipment and Supplies (except Motor Vehicle) Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">424690</ENT> <ENT>Other Chemical and Allied Products Merchant Wholesalers.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">488510</ENT> <ENT>Freight Transportation Arrangement.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">541380</ENT> <ENT>Testing Laboratories.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">541714</ENT> <ENT>Research and Technology in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology).</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">562111</ENT> <ENT>Solid Waste Collection.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">562211</ENT> <ENT>Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">562920</ENT> <ENT>Materials Recovery Facilities.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">922160</ENT> <ENT>Fire Protection.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Basis for Immediate Effective Date</HD> EPA has determined that it is consistent with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. 553(d), to make this action effective September 11, 2024, Section 553(d)(3) provides that final rules shall not become effective until 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> “except . . . as otherwise provided by the agency for good cause found and published with the rule.” “In determining whether good cause exists, an agency should balance the necessity for immediate implementation against principles of fundamental fairness which require that all affected persons be afforded a reasonable amount of time to prepare for the effective date of its ruling.” <E T="03">Omnipoint Corp.</E> v. <E T="03">Fed. Commc'n Comm'n,</E> 79 F.3d 620, 630 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (quoting <E T="03">United States</E> v. <E T="03">Gavrilovic,</E> 551 F.2d 1099, 1105 (8th Cir. 1977)). The purpose of this provision is to “give affected parties a reasonable time to adjust their behavior before the final rule takes effect.” <E T="03">Id.; see also Gavrilovic,</E> 551 F.2d at 1104 (quoting legislative history). The EPA has determined that in light of the nature of this action, good cause exists to make this final action effective immediately because the Agency seeks to provide regulatory certainty and clarity as soon as possible. The removal of vacated regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations does not change the status quo or impose new obligations on any person or entity. As a result, there is no need to provide parties additional time to adjust their behavior, and no person will be harmed by making the action immediately effective as opposed to delaying the effective date by 30 days. Accordingly, EPA is making this action effective immediately upon publication. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Removal of Vacated Provisions on Disposable Cylinder Ban and Cylinder Tracking</HD> On September 23, 2021, EPA signed a final rule that was the first regulation under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. This rule established the initial production and consumption baseline levels against which the phasedown of production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) would be measured, established an initial methodology for allocating and trading HFC allowances for 2022 and 2023, and created a robust, agile, and innovative compliance and enforcement system. <E T="03">Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Establishing the Allowance Allocation and Trading Program Under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act,</E> 86 FR 55116 (October 5, 2021) (hereinafter referred to as the Allocation Framework Rule). EPA explained in that rule that it was establishing a comprehensive system of mechanisms that together and by themselves would discourage and prevent illegal production, import, and subsequent sales of illegally produced or imported HFCs. EPA intended for, and designed, these provisions to each stand independently from the others and to provide significant stand-alone benefits to deter and identify potential violations, while also recognizing that these separate provisions work together as a comprehensive system to deter noncompliance, incentivize future compliance, and ensure that companies that are complying with statutory and regulatory obligations are not put at a competitive disadvantage. <E T="03">Id.</E> at 55166. As part of the suite of compliance and enforcement tools, EPA finalized a prohibition that as of July 1, 2025, no person may import or domestically fill HFCs in a disposable cylinder, and as of January 1, 2027, no person may sell or distribute, or offer f ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 30k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━