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July 12 (UPI) -- The Biden administration has announced plans to continue its reduction of hydrofluorocarbons, releasing a new rule that aims to cut the United States' use of the greenhouse gases by almost half starting next year. Hydrofluorocarbon is a category of greenhouse gases used for refrigeration and air-conditioning as well as in a number of other applications, but is linked to global warming. The final rule announced Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency will reduce HFC consumption in the United States based on historic levels by 40% between 2024 and 2028. The reduction will be on top of...

WASHINGTON — In what officials call a key step to combat climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency is sharply limiting domestic production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners. The new rule announced Thursday follows through on a law Congress passed last year and is intended to decrease U.S. production and use of HFCs by 85% over the next 15 years, part of a global phaseout designed to slow global warming. The administration also is taking steps to crack down on imports of HFCs, greenhouse gases that are thousands of times more...

Air conditioners and refrigerators are as big a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that air conditioners and refrigerators are as big a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State. (1) Careerist folks in government parrot the party-line message. Kerry has heard it from the top-down and buys into it. President Obama has said that global warming, not the Islamic State was the real threat. (2)

Another year has passed and that stubborn Ozone Hole over Antarctica refuses to go away...The Ozone Layer is known to block ultraviolet rays, shielding the surface of Earth from high-energy radiation. Scientists were concerned that degradation of the ozone layer would increase rates of skin cancer and cataracts and cause immune system problems in humans...World consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances has been reduced to zero over the last three decades

The Obama administration is preparing to introduce major steps to phase out production of a popular chemical coolant used in refrigerators and air conditioners, citing growing evidence that the substance is contributing to the warming of the planet. The White House will announce on Tuesday a series of voluntary commitments by some of the country’s largest chemical firms and retailers to move rapidly away from R-134a and similar compounds used in nearly every office, home and automobile in the country, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the effort.

Just encountered this the other day. The freon that we are all being forced to use as they deny us r22, is a disaster. My 1 1/2 ton central system holds 13 lbs of this freon. It was low by only 1/2 a lb. It's cooling capacity was off 80%. It's electrical consumption was still 100% if not higher than when it is fully charged. But to have the 5% reduction in coolant result and so much energy waste and non-cooling is a flaw and should be a crime -- nobody's talking about it. The hvac tech also could not...

Forget America’s fiscal cliff, Europe’s currency troubles or the emerging-markets slowdown. The most important story in the global economy today may well be some good news that isn’t yet making as many headlines – the coming surge in oil production around the world. Until very recently, our collective assumption was that oil was running out. That was partly a matter of what seemed like geological common sense. It took millions of years for the earth to crush plankton into fossil fuels; it is logical to think that it would take millions of years to create more. The rise of the...

The Environmental Protection Agency is continuously proposing new air rules. The new rules will increase the number of bakers and snack food manufacturers who will be required to buy air pollution control equipment such as catalytic oxidizers, bag houses and ammonia refrigeration systems. Catalytic oxidizers destroy alcohol (called ethanol) emissions from baking yeast fermented products. In addition, as consumers demand more hot, spicy and savory seasonings — think asiago cheese — these new combinations and options may cause strong aromas to be emitted. In some areas, odor emissions require air control equipment, often a catalytic oxidizer. The purchase and installation...

Eighteen months after the Obama administration came out with new rules to stop refrigerants in air conditioners from thinning the Earth's protective ozone layer, an unexpected quirk has divided the industry and could have implications for the atmosphere. Much of the equipment being installed in American homes is still getting its cooling power from an ozone-depleting gas that was supposed to be phased out, says a group of disgruntled appliance makers, including the makers of Carrier and Trane air conditioners. Five companies wrote a letter (pdf) to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson this week saying the agency inadvertently left a loophole...

We all take automotive refrigerant (R-12/R-134) as part of the car. But this stuff can KILL YOU. Found out the hard way. Wife was in the car, AC failed, dumped all the freon into the cabin of the car. She got a big shot of it. 30 minutes later, she is very dizzy, very sick. An hour, she's flat on the floor, throwing up blood. Got her to the ER, they started work. She's home now and recovering. But if we had not got her to the ER, she could have died. You do research, the medical articles say "if...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, said in July that it had found the "smoking gun" that caused the space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1: a piece of foam that had peeled off the external fuel tank and struck the shuttle's wing 1 minute and 22 seconds after liftoff. But many experts looking at the tragedy that killed seven astronauts say there is a deeper cause. They say that the metaphorical smoking gun should be painted green. Because of demands that the agency help to front for...

The fire safety system on a new Russian nuclear-powered submarine malfunctioned on a test run in the Sea of Japan, spewing chemicals that killed at least 20 people and injured 21 others, officials said Sunday. It was Russia's worst naval accident since torpedo explosions sank another nuclear-powered submarine, the Kursk, in the Barents Sea in 2000, killing all 118 seamen aboard. The victims died of poisoning from Freon gas that was released Saturday when the fire-extinguishing system accidentally turned on, said Sergei Markin, an official with Russia's top investigative agency.

This: The space shuttle Discovery, now in orbit, shook loose some chunks of insulation from its fuel tank as it took off from Cape Canaveral on July 26. This debris, the consistency of pumice stone, caused scrapes to the fragile tiles that protect the shuttle vehicle from catastrophic heating as it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere. Ominously, this is the type of damage that doomed the shuttle Columbia. NASA spokesmen say Discovery’s damage is less severe. They haven’t said explicitly what everyone is thinking: that it would be very nice if Discovery didn’t catch fire and explode on its return, as...

The space shuttle Discovery, now in orbit, lost part of its heat-shield as it took off from Cape Canaveral on July 26. Ominously, so did the doomed shuttle Columbia. With Discovery's insulation compromised — as Columbia's was — no one knows whether Discovery will catch fire and explode on its return trip to earth, as Columbia did in 2003. For some reason, the space shuttle's insulation-shedding problem has not been successfully corrected more than two years after Columbia's destruction, which killed all seven members of its crew in temperatures that reached more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The ultimate cause of...

Here's Something That Doesn't Happen Every Day... HOUSTON (Reuters) - An exploding vending machine turned the coolant freon into phosgene, a poisonous gas used as a chemical weapon in World War One, and forced the evacuation of 10 people from a Texas hospital, officials said on Thursday. A food service employee was working on the refrigerated soft drink machine at the Park Place Medical Center in Port Arthur, Texas, when a small explosion and fire occurred inside it on Wednesday morning, Port Arthur Fire Marshal Mark Mulliner said. "When freon gas from the cooling system came into contact with the...

PARIS - France's power company asked people to use less electricity Tuesday as some plants were forced to cut output during a Europe-wide heat wave that has fanned wildfires and killed dozens of people. One French medical expert said at least 100 Parisians have died of heat-related illnesses — a claim that if proven would quadruple the number of deaths blamed on the heat wave. With river temperatures hitting record highs, some plants that use water in production are cutting back, and six have stopped altogether. Plants are constrained by regulations limiting the amount of hot water they can discharge...

Questions were raised yesterday about whether the foam that came off the shuttle Columbia's external fuel tank was a problem-plagued formulation that several years ago replaced the original insulating foam used on the shuttle fleet. NASA had sought a replacement because the original foam, called BX-250, contained a chemical, CFC-11, that was to be banned in 2001 because it harmed the ozone layer. The ban on chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC's, was required under an international treaty, the Montreal Protocol, and the Clean Air Act. Last night, some NASA officials and Republican Congressional staff members said that conservative and business groups were...

I have an '89 Cadillac Fleetwood, and the a/c needs re-charging. Unfortunately, it uses old-style R12 Freon, which isn't legal to manufacture any more. My old service station attendant used to have some, but he's out now. Anybody know any sources? Also, I'm informed that converting the a/c to the more modern 134 coolant can be done by a radiator shop at a cost of about $300. Anybody have any experience with such a conversion? Thanks.