3 New England States Announce Plans To Phase Out HFCs, A Source Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

MAINE PUBLIC • February 18, 2020

Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have announced efforts to bar a class of chemicals used in refrigerators and air conditioning that are a growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. "I think the industry knows that this is the direction that things are heading," says Hannah Pingree, co-chair of Maine's Climate Council. She says that hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, are a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. And she says the federal Environmental Protection Agency had been planning to take action against them.