Urge the EPA to approve GreenFreeze in the USA

by Claudette

June 10, 2010

Did you know that your refrigerator contains super greenhouse gases? These gases – called HFC or F-gas refrigerants– are a growing piece of the global warming problem.  They are 1400 times more powerful at warming the climate than carbon dioxide and Greenpeace has been working to eliminate them ever since they were introduced in the early 1990s.  And we did eliminate them in Europe, Asia, and South America.

It looks like we could finally see a major breakthrough on this front in the U.S..   
Help make sure this happens!

Recently, EPA proposed a new rule that would allow climate-friendly hydrocarbon refrigerants in the U.S. Until now hydrocarbons have been illegal here because of an outdated set of EPA regulations that restrict the types of refrigerants that can be used.

The U.S. is actually trailing most of the rest of the world in refrigeration technology. Back in 1993 Greenpeace developed a hydrocarbon refrigerator – called GreenFreeze – and so far Europe, Asia and many other regions have transitioned to this technology. Not only is it free of super-greenhouse gases, but the hydrocarbons are actually more efficient coolants, and can reduce the amount of energy needed to run the refrigerator as well.

Today 40% of global refrigerator production is GreenFreeze, and nearly 400 million units have sold in total worldwide – but none in the U.S.

Until now.

With EPA’s new rule, manufacturers could soon be allowed to sell GreenFreeze in the U.S. Some companies have already expressed their interest.  This means that when it comes time to buy your next refrigerator, you could buy one that is climate-friendly and possibly more efficient too.

But the rule is so far just a proposal, and it took years for EPA to even get this far. And there are other cooling sectors – like air conditioning – that have similar climate-friendly options that EPA hasn’t addressed yet.

We need to encourage EPA to take the next steps to finalize this rule ASAP and urge them to also consider similar action in other cooling sectors soon.  

EPA is accepting public comments on the rule until July 9th, so act now to let them know that you want to be able to buy GreenFreeze in the U.S!

 

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