SENATORS FORGE PLAN TO CUT USE OF POTENT GREENHOUSE GAS

Republicans join Democrats in bid to phase out chemicals

In a show of bipartisanship, key Senate Republicans joined Democrats last week in agreeing to phase out chemicals widely used in air conditioners and refrigeration that are warming the planet.

Despite the Trump administration’s refusal to join a global agreement to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, which are among the world’s most potent drivers of climate change, a push by U.S. firms and environmentalists appears to have swayed lawmakers.

“This agreement protects both American consumers and American businesses,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-wyo., who chairs the Environment and Public Works committee. “We can have clean air without damaging our economy.”

The proposed phaseout will be offered as an amendment to a bipartisan energy bill, though it is unclear whether it will clear both chambers and be signed into law by President Donald Trump before Congress adjourns in January.

An unusual coalition of business and environmental groups — including the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Freedomworks and the Natural Resources Defense Fund — have been pushing Trump officials for months to support the Kigali Amendment, a 2016 agreement by nearly 200 countries to slash the use of a group of organic compounds that deplete the ozone layer and drive global warming. Some conservative organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, have sought to block Senate approval of the treaty.

Hydrofluorocarbons, also known at HFCS, are used in nearly every American household to cool everything from refrigerators to cars. They were widely introduced three decades ago as a substitute for chlorofluorocarbons, a different set of chemicals that were depleting the Earth’s ozone layer. While this effort helped repair the ozone layer, scientists have identified HFCS as a significant driver of climate change — more potent than carbon dioxide. Cutting these emissions — one of the fastest-growing greenhouse gases in the U.S. — could avert a 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 degree Fahrenheit) global temperature rise by the end of the century.

Barrasso joined Thursday with Sens. Thomas Carper, D-del., and John Kennedy, R-LA., in proposing to phase out the production and importation of HFCS by 85 percent over the next 15 years. That would put the U.S. on a path to meet the targets outlined under the Kigali Amendment, which modifies the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to preserve the ozone layer.

The Senate proposal excludes six specific uses of HFCS, including fire suppression on aircraft, bear repellent used by hikers and inhalers required by people with asthma, and it preempts states from regulating HFCS used for those products for five years. Some states have been regulating the chemicals in the absence of federal action.

“This amendment would spur billions of dollars of economic growth in domestic manufacturing and create tens of thousands of new jobs, all while helping our planet avoid half a degree Celsius in global warming,” Carper said in a statement. “At a time when we could all use some good news, this is great news for our economy and our planet. Let’s get it done.”