The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement with Resonac America Inc. after the company illegally imported approximately 2,800kg of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) into the USA.
Resonac America (a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Resonac Corporation) will pay a penalty of US $416,003 and destroy 1,693 pounds (768kg) of HFCs to resolve the EPA’s allegations of violations. The company imported HFCs to the Port of Los Angeles on three occasions in 2023 and 2024.
The imports violated the prohibition on importing bulk regulated substances into the United States without possessing sufficient consumption or application-specific allowances at the time of import.
EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator, Martha Guzman, says HFCs are a powerful climate pollutant and it’s imperative that companies importing them do so in strict accordance with environmental laws.
“This is the latest in a series of EPA HFC enforcement efforts nationwide, which send a clear message that the federal government is vigilantly monitoring imports of HFCs and will hold illegal actors accountable,” she says.
HFCs are considered a super climate pollutant, with global warming potentials (GWPs) up to thousands of times higher than CO2. For this reason, pursuant to the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment, production and imports of HFCs are being phased down by 85 per cent in developed countries by 2036.
Resonac America imported HFC-23, which is a potent greenhouse gas with a 100-year GWP of 14,800. The EPA estimates this enforcement action prevented approximately 2.816 metric tonnes of illegal HFCs from being imported into the US. If released into the atmosphere, the HFCs would have been the equivalent of 41,676.8 metric tons of CO2.
Assistant Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, David Uhlmann, says the case is the largest penalty imposed to date for importing super-polluting HFCs – and the first to require the company to destroy the HFCs.
In response to the Kigali Amendment, the American Congress passed the bipartisan American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020 (AIM Act), requiring the US to phase down HFC production and consumption by 85 per cent by 2036. Since January 2022, the EPA and the CBP have denied entry to approximately 81 shipments of illegal HFCs. The EPA has made it a national enforcement and compliance priority to address the illegal import of HFCs under the current phase down, and has settled numerous cases over the past several months with companies regarding HFC imports.