A federal appeals court on Tuesday appeared skeptical that EPA had violated the law when it finalized regulations aimed at curbing the use of the heat-trapping chemicals known as hydrofluorocarbons.
Companies that import the powerful refrigerants are challenging an EPA rule that provided allowances to companies based on the average of their three highest consuming years between 2011 and 2019.
IGas Holdings — a Florida-based corporation that operates as a parent company for importers and distributors of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs — told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit during oral arguments that the agency lacked congressional authority to stop the clock on those calculations in 2019.
JoAnn Sandifer, an attorney for the companies, said they’re asking that only the section of the rule that addresses allocation be vacated “on the grounds that EPA’s failure to include the 2020 data was arbitrary and capricious.”