Air conditioning and chemical companies are lobbying President Donald Trump's administration to defend a policy from President Barack Obama, according to Axios.
The policy, which phases down greenhouse gases emitted by refrigerants in appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators, is the only climate policy from Obama's era that the president has not put in his sights for repeal, according to officials in the administration and the industry.
The companies have made sizeable investments in the policy and in similar standards, and they want their investments to count, Axios reported.
The refrigerants contain greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons. The Obama administration led world leaders to add HFC emissions to the Montreal Protocol, a 30-year-old agreement to treat a hole in the Earth's ozone layer.
The Kigali amendment, as the addition of HFC emissions is called, has not stirred political controversy similar to the Paris climate accord.
"We are very quick to distinguish the Montreal Protocol from the Paris climate deal," said Kevin Fay, Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy director, according to Axios.
Fay references President Ronald Reagan, who signed the Montreal Protocol in 1988, when he urges the Trump administration and Republican legislators to follow the protocol. "It's Reagan-era environmental policy done right," Fay said.
Promoting the HFC amendment to the Montreal Protocol is more about business interests than a concern over climate change, Axios reported.
"It really was just a matter of wanting to have one global process rather than having a patchwork of regulations that they would have to comply with," according to Francis Dietz, Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration Institute vice president.
The Senate must vote to ratify the HFC amendment, but the State Department must first send it to the Senate. The industry is in no hurry for the amendment to get to a vote, Axios reported, because of the current partisan atmosphere in Washington.
The fossil fuel and electric power industries also are expressing concerns about regulations to President Trump. In May, executives called on the president to ease off on canceling Obama-era regulations, according to a May 15 Axios report.
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