On June 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down provisions of the Environmental Protection Agency’s allocation rule that would ban the use of non-refillable cylinders and require QR code tracking of refrigerant cylinders.

The ruling was in favor of Heating Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), which supported the phase-down of production and import of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (AIM Act), but challenged the EPA’s authority to implement a refillable cylinder and tracking system requirement. 

“Since the passage of the AIM Act in 2020, the EPA has been diligently working to get the regulations in place for our industry to phase down the use of HFCs, but with the speed of these regulations comes bad ideas that will damage our members,” HARDI’s Director of Government Affairs Alex Ayers said in a news release.  We continue to fight back with all of our available resources to stop these bad ideas from being implemented. HARDI is happy to see the court agree that the EPA exceeded its authority in banning non-refillable cylinders and requiring the tracking of every cylinder used at consumers’ homes and businesses.”

More details about the ruling are available on HARDI’s website.