The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency – EPA- is proposing to ban the use of certain hydro-fluorocarbon chemicals that it claims significantly contribute to climate change. This is the agency’s second action aimed at reducing emissions of HFCs, a class of potent greenhouse gases. (Read AutoInformed.co on: Volkswagen to use CO2 as Air Conditioning Refrigerant, and New “Eco Friendly” Refrigerant Can Burn in Accidents Says Mercedes)
This action is estimated to reduce greenhouse gases by up to 42 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2020, equal to the carbon dioxide emissions from the annual electricity use of more than five million homes.
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy – SNAP – program evaluates substitute chemicals and technologies that are safe for the ozone layer. Today’s proposed action would change the status of certain high-global warming potential or GWP HFCs that were previously listed as acceptable to be unacceptable in specific end-uses. EPA claims the revised policy is based on information showing that other alternatives are available for the same uses that pose lower risk overall to human health or the climate.
The HFCs and HFC-containing blends affected by today’s proposal are used in aerosols, automotive air conditioning, retail food refrigeration, vending machines, and foam blowing.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, publisher (kzhw@aol.com), is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms, auto company headquarters, plant floors, as well as industry research and development labs where the real mobility work is done. He can quote from court decisions, refer to instrumented road tests, analyze financial results, and profile executive personalities and corporate cultures.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
