A federal appeals court on Friday rejected industry-led efforts to strike down an EPA rule governing the phase-down of potent heat-trapping chemicals through a cap-and-trade program.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the agency’s 2024 framework rule establishing allowances related to companies’ production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons did not violate the Constitution, and was in line with procedural law.
The rule is used to help implement the 2020 American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (AIM), which sets a target of slashing the industrial use of HFCs 85 percent by 2036. The synthetic compounds are used in cooling and refrigeration, as well as in fire suppression systems.
“Congress enacted a detailed program for capping and trading HFC allowances, in which the EPA has discretion to decide how to allocate the allowances,” said Judge Florence Pan, writing the opinion for the court.
