- within Environment topic(s)
- within Finance and Banking, Tax, Food, Drugs, Healthcare and Life Sciences topic(s)
Key Takeaways
What Happened? On October 3, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule providing regulatory relief from certain requirements of the Agency's 2023 Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) Technology Transitions Rule (TTR), which implements subsection (i) of the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act), 42 U.S.C. § 7675(i). The proposed rule addresses topics raised in four administrative petitions and other stakeholder requests regarding specific regulatory requirements. The proposed relief includes extended compliance dates and more lenient global warming potential (GWP) thresholds for acceptable refrigerants.
Who Is Affected? The proposed rule potentially affects manufacturers, importers, and users of residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump systems, retail food refrigeration equipment for remote condensing units and supermarkets, chillers and industrial process refrigeration equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing, refrigerated transport intermodal containers, refrigeration systems in cold storage warehouses, refrigerated laboratory centrifuges and refrigerated laboratory shakers, and condensing units used for residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pumps.
What Should You Do? Stakeholders affected by the proposed rule should carefully review the proposal and consider submitting comments to the docket (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0005). Comments are due on or before November 17, 2025.
Key Elements of the Proposed Rule
Retail Food Refrigeration – Remote Condensing Unit Systems and Supermarket Systems. The 2023 TTR established restrictions on the use of HFCs in new remote condensing unit systems (starting January 1, 2026) and new supermarket systems (January 1, 2027). The GWP limit in the 2023 TTR is 150 for systems with refrigerant charge capacities greater than or equal to 200 pounds, and 300 for systems with refrigerant charge capacities less than 200 pounds or for the high temperature side of cascade systems, irrespective of the total charge capacity.
Food retailers and a trade association raised concerns about the limited number and types of refrigerant substitutes that EPA had previously determined would be available for use in remote condensing unit systems and supermarket systems by the respective January 1, 2026, and 2027 compliance dates. As a result of these concerns, EPA proposes an interim GWP limit of 1,400 starting January 1, 2026, for new remote condensing units and starting January 1, 2027, for new supermarket systems. Starting January 1, 2032, the GWP limit for remote condensing units and supermarket systems would revert to 150 or 300, depending on the system. EPA did not propose changes to the 150 GWP limit for systems with a refrigerant charge of200 pounds or more, nor to the 300 GWP limit for systems with a refrigerant charge of less than 200 pounds or for the high-temperature side of a cascade system.
EPA also requests comment on whether the expansion of cooling capacity in BTU/hour (e.g., 25 percent) would be allowable during a remodel of a supermarket system without triggering the requirements at 40 C.F.R. § 84.54(e). EPA is requesting comment to address stakeholder concerns that 40 C.F.R. § 84.54(e)(2) and (3) may result in supermarkets having to replace legacy systems before the end of their useful life.
Chillers and Industrial Process Refrigeration Equipment Used in Semiconductor Manufacturing. EPA proposes extending the compliance date for certain chillers used for industrial process refrigeration (IPR) and certain IPR equipment used to manufacture semiconductors (i.e., semiconductor manufacturing and related equipment or SMRE) with charge sizes of 100 pounds or less from January 1, 2026, or January 1, 2028, as applicable, to January 1, 2030. SEMI, the global trade association for the semiconductor supply chain, challenged the 2023 TTR and petitioned EPA to reconsider the compliance dates that affect SMRE for the IPR and chillers for IPR subsectors. (Beveridge & Diamond represents SEMI in challenging the rule and petitioning for administrative reconsideration.)
In addition to delaying the compliance dates, EPA stated that it "understands that IPR and Chillers for IPR used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry may operate at one temperature while being designed to reach lower temperatures" and that "the lowest temperature at which equipment is designed to operate determines whether it is subject to use restrictions." EPA requests comment on the charge size threshold applicable to SMRE and whether to exempt SMRE from 40 C.F.R. § 84.54, although EPA notes that it is not proposing to exempt this equipment.
Refrigerated Transport – Intermodal Containers. In response to a petition from an intermodal container manufacturer, EPA proposes adjusting the lower bound temperature exclusion threshold of -50 °C to -35 °C, and changing the location where that temperature is measured from the temperature of the refrigerant entering the evaporator (for direct heat exchange systems) or the temperature of the fluid exiting (for chillers) to the "box temperature." In addition, the petitioner requested that EPA clarify that the temperature measurement be based on the lowest temperature at which the equipment is "designed to reach and maintain." EPA clarified this means that if a refrigerated transport intermodal container has the capacity to achieve a box temperature below -35 °C, it would not be subject to the TTR restrictions even if at times the container is operated at temperatures at or above -35 °C.
Other Aspects of the Proposal
Condensing Units – Residential and Light Commercial Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Subsector. EPA proposes to retain current requirements regarding the treatment of certain condensing units used in air conditioning and heat pump systems in the residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump subsector.
Cold Storage Warehouses. EPA proposes to adjust the GWP threshold for cold storage warehouses from 150 or 300, as applicable, to 700 starting January 1, 2026, with a later adjustment to the GWP threshold of either 150 or 300, depending on charge size or whether it is part of the high temperature side of a cascade system, starting January 1, 2032.
Industrial Process Refrigeration in Certain Laboratory Equipment. EPA proposes extending the compliance date to January 1, 2028, for refrigerated centrifuges and refrigerated laboratory shakers within the IPR sector.
Compliance Date Extension for Residential and Light Commercial Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Systems. To address concerns about supply chain issues related to R-454B, EPA proposes to remove the installation deadline for residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump systems, provided that specified components of such systems were manufactured or imported prior to January 1, 2025.
Additional Topics on Which EPA Seeks Comment:
- Data about which refrigerants are being considered or adopted in new refrigeration equipment for remote condensing units, supermarket systems, and cold storage warehouses;
- Data about the commercial availability and timeline for adoption of new refrigeration equipment using lower-GWP substitutes in remote condensing units, supermarket systems, and cold storage warehouses, as it relates to the proposed 2032 compliance dates for these subsectors;
- Data about costs and savings resulting from the extension of compliance timelines for manufacturers and servicing companies, which are investing in U.S. production of new raw materials, refrigerants, equipment, and other technologies, intended to support companies' transition and compliance, across the subsectors in this rule;
- The proposed removal of the installation compliance date for residential and light commercial air conditioning systems, as well as whether an extension of the installation compliance date by one or more years would be appropriate, noting that EPA does not have information about the extent of equipment that may remain in inventory as of January 1, 2026, and account for any significant reliance interests in the final action as well as any significant reliance interests that should be accounted for in any final action; and
- Information and data that may be used to inform future actions that could be taken by EPA or other parts of the federal government to address R-454B supply challenges.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
