EPA Announces Hearings on Proposed HCFC Rules

Two hearings will be held on January 7, 2009 in Washington, one for each proposed rule. A meeting between the HARDI HCFC Task Force and the EPA today indicated that the allocation rule is the more important of the two for HVACR distributors. Here is, though, the pre-charged rule as well which appears now to be superceded by the other. HARDI will be distributing a more thorough summary of the two proposals shortly, but in the meantime, members are encouraged to contact HARDI if you have questions about these rules.

HARDI will be at this hearing on the 7th. Here's what the EPA just sent out:

Stakeholders,

This morning, EPA's notices of proposed rulemaking for the 2010 phasedown and precharged appliances were published in the Federal
Register. Copies of the PDF files for the two Federal Register notices
are attached at the bottom of this e-mail message. More information about the proposed rules will be posted at http://epa.gov/ozone/title6/phaseout/classtwo.html#2010nprm in the days to come.

Hearings have been requested on both proposed rules. The date for the
hearings is January 7, 2009. Because hearings have been requested, the
comment periods for the proposed rules are automatically extended to March 9, 2009, for the 2010 phasedown and February 6, 2009, for precharged appliances.

The following is tentative information for the hearings, according to our initial plans. Since this information is subject to change, please check EPA's website for updated information.

Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Times: Pre-charged appliances: 9:00 - 12:00
2010 phasedown: 1:00 - 4:00Location: 1310 L Street., N.W., Room 154