WASHINGTON - Today, E.P.A. Administrator Gina McCarthy joined private and public sector leaders for a 2nd yearly White House roundtable discussion about the progress made and new steps taken to curb emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air conditioning. Administrator McCarthy announced several new actions the agency will take to help support a smooth transition to climate-friendly alternatives to HFCs.
"EPA is working closely with industry leaders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition to climate-friendly refrigerants, and deploy advanced refrigeration technologies," said E.P.A. Administrator Gina McCarthy. "The powerful combination of EPA's regulatory actions and innovations emerging from the private sector have put our country on track to significantly cut HFC use and deliver on the goals of the President's Climate Action Plan."
Among the actions announced today, E.P.A. suggested a rule that would enhance the way refrigerant is sold, handled, recovered, and recycled. The suggestion would strengthen the existing requirements for handling refrigerants and apply those rules to ozone-depleting and HFC refrigerants. E.P.A. estimates that this rule would further reduce enough HFC emissions in 2025 to equal seven million metric tons of carbon dioxide. E.P.A. will accept comments on the suggestion for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. After reviewing public comments, E.P.A. projects to finalize this rule in 2016.
E.P.A. also announced that it intends to initiate a suggested rulemaking in 2016 under EPA's Significant New Alternatives Policy Plan in 2016 that would change the status for certain high global warming potential HFCs to unacceptable where safer alternatives are accessible and also approve several new climate-friendly alternatives for a variety of industry applications.
At the roundtable gathering, the Department of Defense announced a suite of new commitments, including installing low-GWP transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems at 3 U.S. commissaries in 2016 and strengthening existing collaborations and creating mechanisms to build new military-to-military and industry partnerships to share information and lessons-learned on emissions reductions and lower-GWP alternatives. Greenchill Partner Target announced that all of the new stand-alone coolers in its stores with a compressor capacity below 2,200 btu/hr will be HFC-free starting in January 2016. Also, Roundy's Supermarket announced it joined EPA's GreenChill Partnership and committed to using HFC-free transcritical CO2 refrigeration technology in its 6 new stores that are opening next year in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The new efforts build upon progress and commitments already made under EPA's GreenChill partnership, which works with the supermarket industry to transition to climate-friendly refrigerants, reduce the amount of refrigerant used and eliminate harmful refrigerant leaks. If supermarkets nationwide reduced the amount of refrigerant they leak to the current GreenChill partner average, they could avoid $169 million in refrigerant replacement costs while preventing the yearly emission of about 29 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2eq). In 2014 alone, GreenChill partners, including the GreenChill awardees, prevented in excess of eight metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
E.P.A. recognized the following organizations with a GreenChill award:
Best Corporate Emissions Rate: Stater Bros. Markets (San Bernardino, Calif.) earned the Partnership's most prestigious award for achieving the lowest refrigerant emissions rate among retail chains. Port Townsend Food Co-op (Port Townsend, Wash.) received this award in the small-independent GreenChill partner category.
Most Improved Emissions Rate: Brookshire Grocery Company (Tyler, Texas) was recognized for achieving the Partnership's biggest refrigerant leak rate reduction compared to the year it joined the GreenChill Partnership. Harris Teeter (Matthews, N.C.) earned this same recognition for lowering its emissions rate in excess of any other partner compared to the previous year.
Goal Achievement: GreenChill's 4 Superior Goal Achievement winners voluntarily set and achieved challenging refrigerant emissions reduction goals. Winners include Hannaford (Scarborough, Maine), Harris Teeter (Matthews, N.C.), Hy-Vee (Des Moines, Iowa), and King Kullen (Bethpage, N.Y.). Both Hy-Vee and King Kullen also earned Exceptional Goal Achievement awards for meeting a secondary, more ambitious refrigerant emissions reduction goal.
Distinguished Partner: Food Lion (Salisbury, N.C.) was recognized for demonstrating extraordinary leadership and initiative in support of GreenChill's mission.
GreenChill's Store Certification Plan acknowledged certain stores for meeting strict performance criteria that demonstrate their refrigeration systems have minimal impacts on the ozone layer and climate. GreenChill presented the following store certification awards:
Best of the Best Award: The Sprouts Farmers Market store in Dunwoody, Ga, was recognized for being the 1st store in a warm region to install a refrigeration system that uses only carbon dioxide as the refrigerant. Carbon dioxide's contribution to climate change is several thousand times smaller than many conventional refrigerants.
Store Certification Excellence Award: Hillphoenix (Conyers, Ga.) and Sprouts Farmers Market (Phoenix, Ariz.) earned awards for achieving more GreenChill Store Certifications than their peers over the past year.
Store Re-Certification Award: 6 stores were acknowledged for achieving GreenChill certification for 5 consecutive years: Sprouts Farmers Market in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Stater Bros. Markets in Carlsbad, Cathedral City, and Moreno Valley, Calif, Wegmans in Lanham, Md., and Whole Foods Market in Santa Rosa, California
Learn more about the public and private sector commitments made at the White House Roundtable:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/10/15/fact-sheet-obama-administration-and-private-sector-leaders-announce
Learn more about EPA's refrigerant management suggested rulemaking:
http://www2.epa.gov/snap/608-proposal
Learn more about EPA's SNAP Program:
http://www2.epa.gov/snap
Learn more about the GreenChill Partnership and the award winners:
http://www2.epa.gov/greenchill
