SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is the latest to join a coalition of 11 attorneys general who filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in an effort to fight what they allege is the agency's "illegal" decision to allow companies to use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in their products.
The coalition of attorneys general alleges the EPA is allowing companies to incorporate HFCs, a potent greenhouse gas, in their products despite a 2017 decision by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals that stated the EPA could not make existing HFCs users switch to another refrigerant, but could require companies that had not started using HFCs to use a safer material.
The coalition says the agency announced it has stopped enforcing the court's requirement in a recently released EPA guidance document.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is not above the law," Becerra said in a statement. "That is why we are taking him to court. He should be working to protect our environment. Instead, he wants to unlawfully allow more companies to use these very potent climate pollutants."
The coalition includes attorneys general from California, New York, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, the District of Columbia as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.