EPA inches forward on rewrite of climate rule

The back story: This Obama-era rule was meant to be the regulatory foundation for how the last administration would implement a new amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a global environmental treaty originally agreed to more than 30 years ago to protect the Earth’s ozone layer.

The amendment, approved by all world leaders in October 2016, phases down refrigerants used in air conditioners that contain powerful greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.

What’s next: For the Montreal Protocol amendment to legally take effect, the Senate must vote and approve it. The State Department has official jurisdiction over that, and a request for comment wasn’t immediately returned, though a career official expressed support for it late last year.

A senior EPA official said the agency is supporting the process, but if Congress doesn’t approve it, EPA views the amendment “as a backdoor attempt to turn the Montreal Protocol into a climate treaty.”

Bottom line: Trump is more likely to keep this policy more than any others issued by Obama, largely because the industries affected support the policy. The heating and cooling industry backs it because they've invested millions in new refrigerants to replace the existing ones.