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Firm Accused of Greenhouse Fuel Smuggling Hit with Document Nice
A penalty leveled towards an organization accused of smuggling greenhouse gases is a part of the EPA’s crackdown on the planet-warming hydrofluorocarbons utilized in refrigeration and air-conditioning
EPA has fined a chemical producer for the unlawful import of hydrofluorocarbons, potent greenhouse gases utilized in refrigeration methods.
Mint Photographs/Getty Photographs
CLIMATEWIRE | EPA has reached a settlement with an organization accused of importing greenhouse gases into the Port of Los Angeles, ensuing within the largest-ever penalty for illegally bringing hydrofluorocarbons into the nation.
Below the settlement — introduced Thursday — Resonac America pays a $416,003 penalty and destroy 1,693 kilos of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for illegally importing the planet-warming chemical substances on 4 events in 2023 and 2024.
“EPA continues to prioritize enforcement towards firms that illegally import refrigerants that injury our local weather and imperil future generations,” mentioned David Uhlmann, assistant administrator for EPA’s Workplace of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
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He famous that the case marks the biggest penalty imposed thus far as a part of EPA’s Nationwide Enforcement and Compliance Initiative on Mitigating Local weather Change — and the primary to require the corporate to destroy the HFCs.
Resonac America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Resonac, didn’t instantly return a message left on the chemical producer’s San Jose workplace.
The settlement comes weeks after a San Diego man turned the primary individual prosecuted underneath a 2020 regulation that goals to gradual local weather change by prohibiting importation of HFCs with out EPA permission. An indictment accuses the person of smuggling greenhouse gases into the USA from Mexico and promoting them.
“HFCs are a strong local weather pollutant, so it’s crucial that firms importing them into our nation accomplish that in strict accordance with environmental legal guidelines,” EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman mentioned of the newest case.
Guzman mentioned the case is the newest in a collection of EPA HFC enforcement efforts nationwide, “which ship a transparent message that the federal authorities is vigilantly monitoring imports of HFCs and can maintain unlawful actors accountable.”
HFCs — chemical substances made up of hydrogen, fluorine and carbon — are thought-about potent greenhouse gases and are utilized in refrigeration, air con, foam insulation, fireplace extinguishing methods and aerosols. The worldwide warming potential of an HFC could be a whole bunch to 1000’s of occasions stronger than carbon dioxide.
EPA says that on three separate events — in October, November and December 2023 — Resonac imported 6,208 kilos of unlawful HFCs. The imports violated a prohibition on importing bulk regulated substances into the U.S. with out possessing the required allowance, EPA mentioned.
Resonac additionally failed to present EPA a required discover of deliberate shipments of HFCs for the 2023 shipments in addition to for a February 2024 cargo. EPA mentioned the corporate additionally didn’t well timed submit experiences to the EPA with info on HFCs that the corporate imported within the first and second quarters of 2023.
The enforcement prevents roughly 6,208 kilos, or 2.816 metric tons, of unlawful HFCs from being imported into the USA, EPA mentioned. If launched into the ambiance, the HFCs are the equal of about 41,677 metric tons of CO2, the quantity of emissions related to powering 8,225 properties with electrical energy for a yr.
Below the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Modification, developed international locations have agreed to section down the manufacturing and import of HFCs by 85 p.c from historic ranges by 2036.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan has warned that local weather protections might be hindered by an HFC black market that has emerged as federal regulators have sought to chop the pollution’ use. EPA says it has made enforcement of HFC legal guidelines a precedence, working with U.S. Customs and Border Safety to disclaim entry to roughly 81 shipments of unlawful HFCs since January 2022.
Reprinted from E&E Information with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E Information supplies important information for vitality and setting professionals.
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