AHRI Applauds Introduction of HVACR Jobs Bill

The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) expressed strong support for legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Pete Olson (R-TX), Scott Peters (D-CA), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) that would boost American manufacturing of next-generation refrigerant technologies, promote American technology, and create tens of thousands of new jobs.

The American Innovation and Manufacturing Leadership Act, HR 5544, would bring about a phasedown of a class of refrigerants known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and allow for a market- and consumer-friendly transition to new and better performing refrigerants and related products and equipment.

The bill is similar to the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (S.2457), introduced in the Senate on October 30 by Senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Tom Carper (D-DE), which now has 32 bipartisan co-sponsors. Although the bills differ slightly in structure and organization, both would produce the same Federal regulatory framework to phase down HFCs.

"This bill brings us one step closer to implementing an HFC phasedown and reaping the substantial economic benefits associated with this transition in refrigerant technologies," said AHRI President and CEO Stephen Yurek. "Both the House and the Senate bills will accomplish our industry's refrigerant objective while also protecting consumers and providing significant economic and environmental benefits."

According to a 2018 study by the Interindustry Forecasting at the University of Maryland (INFORUM), an HFC phasedown will create 33,000 new manufacturing jobs, increase direct manufacturing output by $12.5 billion, and increase the U.S. share of the global HVACR export market by 25 percent.