For those of you in CA … please attend a public hearing to support the proposal to offer incentives to use low GWP refrigeration technology and equipment. The money will also support service technician training for natural refrigerants!
The CA Air Resources Board, the CA government agency that regulates refrigerants (among other things), has put forward a proposal to use some of the money that CA collects under its cap-and-trade program for incentives for low GWP refrigerant technologies and training.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE support this proposal!
The fees that the CA government collects from businesses for their climate impact must, by law, be reinvested into projects that help fight climate change. Supermarkets pay into this fund, so LET’S MAKE SURE TO GET SOME OF THIS MONEY!
If you live in CA, please attend one of the public meetings that are being held from August 3-13th in cities across CA. See the schedule here: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/auctionproceeds/2015augworkshopnotice.pdf.
As you can imagine, when a state has hundreds of millions of dollars to give out, everyone wants a piece of it. Many, many more projects have been proposed than can be funded. The proposal to offer incentives for supermarkets to transition to low GWP refrigerants needs to have enough support to survive the weeding-out process. If we do not support this, the idea will be killed and other projects will get the money.
The proposal for the subsidies is contained in this document: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/auctionproceeds/draft-second-investment-plan-concept-paper-7-28-15.pdf.
The relevant section for us starts on page 13 in section B, titled “Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency.”
The most important paragraph is on page 15, where it says: “There is an opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of California’s businesses while addressing a major short-lived climate pollutant source. For example, as the 2020 deadline for the Montreal protocol-driven phase out of Ozone Depleting Substances approaches, refrigeration systems throughout California relying on Ozone Depleting Substances are increasingly being transitioned to systems that use high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants. While low-GWP refrigerant systems are available, financial barriers inhibit widespread adoption. Currently, there are no incentives to support low-GWP refrigerants. Offering support to California businesses to install or upgrade to a low-GWP refrigerant system can provide significant reductions of F-gas emissions at a very low cost. These systems may be more efficient than older systems that use high-GWP refrigerants, also reducing energy use and electricity bills.”
Page 16 then goes on to state: “There is an opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of California’s businesses while addressing a major short-lived climate pollutant source. For example, as the 2020 deadline for the Montreal protocol-driven phase out of Ozone Depleting Substances approaches, refrigeration systems throughout California relying on Ozone Depleting Substances are increasingly being transitioned to systems that use high Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants. While low-GWP refrigerant systems are available, financial barriers inhibit widespread adoption. Currently, there are no incentives to support low-GWP refrigerants. Offering support to California businesses to install or upgrade to a low-GWP refrigerant system can provide significant reductions of F-gas emissions at a very low cost. These systems may be more efficient than older systems that use high-GWP refrigerants, also reducing energy use and electricity bills.”
We have the opportunity to submit written comments in support of the proposal until September 1st – more on that later – but for now, what’s important is to get as many people as possible to show up and speak at these public meetings!