HVAC Legislation: 2024 Year in Review

The ongoing transition to lower-GWP refrigerants was the dominant issue in HVACR this year, but other political and regulatory developments, from Donald Trump’s successful bid to return to the White House to local battles over attempts to ban new natural gas connections, to a Supreme Court decision, are shaping the industry as well. 

The refrigerant transition, an effort to phase down the use of HFCs, which trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming, takes another big step in January, when all newly manufactured and imported residential heat pumps and a/c units must be built to use lower-GWP refrigerants such as R-454B and R-32. The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020, through which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates the reduction of HFCs by 85%, from a baseline level, by 2036, set the transition in motion. 

A year ago, after some pushback by the industry, the EPA allowed for a year-long sell-through period, ending on the first day of 2026, for equipment manufactured in 2025 or earlier that uses higher-GWP refrigerant. 

“The EPA’s pace of implementing the AIM Act has kept the industry occupied as we move toward the heart of the refrigerant transition,” said Francis J. Dietz, vice president of public affairs at the Air-conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), which represents manufacturers. 

“The EPA has given the industry a roadmap to accomplish the HFC phasedown,” said Alex Ayers, vice president of government affairs at Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI). “We expect the upcoming year to be a smooth transition to low-GWP refrigerants in the air-conditioning and heat pump sector, and the next several years for refrigeration.” 

On the Supreme Court front, the court in June overturned a 1984 case, Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, throwing out the so-called Chevron Doctrine, which held that government agencies had the power to interpret ambiguous laws. The ruling was a blow to federal agencies’ regulatory power. 

Dietz said the decision will have an impact on the HVACR industry. 

“Clearly, the Supreme Court’s Chevron decision was the most momentous happening in the nation’s regulatory arena,” Dietz said. “Its potential effects are still being studied, but it’s likely to be of great interest to the new administration and Congress.” 

At the Plumbing–Heating–Cooling Contractors—National Association (PHCC), Mark Valentini, vice president for legislative affairs, said setbacks this year for various efforts around the country to phase out the use of natural gas amount to wins for PHCC members. 

“You’re starting to see a little pullback on these policies,” he said. 

In the state of Washington, for example, voters in November approved a measure that prevents local governments from restricting natural gas and blocks the state’s plans to transition away from the use of gas in homes. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to ban natural gas hookups in new construction was sidelined by political and union opposition. And in Berkeley, California, the first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas in new construction was repealed after the city lost a long court battle, and the city’s voters in November rejected a plan to tax the owners of large buildings that use natural gas. 

“I don’t know if this is just an uptick, or if this is going to be more of a trend, as municipalities and state governments are starting to realize that … maybe they’re getting too aggressive on electrification,” Valentini said. 

Valentini said he’s counting on the reintroduction in the next Congress of the Energy Choice Act, (H.R. 6089 of 2023), which would have barred state and local governments from banning energy service connections based on the type of energy to be delivered. The bill was sponsored by Nick Langworthy, a Republican House of Representatives member from New York, but remained stuck in committee. 

“Langworthy has his eyes on an Energy and Commerce (committee) seat,” Valentini said. “He’s also received a lot of positive feedback from stakeholders on that bill. So it’s hard for me to imagine that it wouldn’t be introduced.” 

Valentini is also looking for the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which was approved in the House this year but stalled in the Senate. WIOA is a workforce education and support measure originally passed in 2014, and the 2024 proposal would have updated the act. 

“A lot of our state chapters take advantage of WIOA grants to offset the cost of an apprenticeship, and that allows a wider avenue, another avenue to fund workforce training for job-seekers that might not have those opportunities.” 

Ayers, at HARDI, said the Department of Energy (DOE) review of energy-efficiency standards for HVACR products was important for the group’s members, and that HARDI is looking forward to “returning to the regular pace of DOE rulemaking” and planning to work with the department on future proposals to determine if increased standards are justifiable and feasible. The DOE had agreed to a schedule of reviewing standards for 20 HVACR and other energy-consuming products in the 2022 settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 

In other HVACR-related political developments in 2024: 

• Republicans in the House introduced six bills that aimed to limit the government’s ability to regulate consumer appliances, including refrigerators and room air conditioners. Three were approved in the House — the Refrigerator Freedom Act, the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act, and the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act — but remain in committee in the Senate. No votes were taken on the Affordable Air Conditioning Act, the Liberty in Laundry Act, or the Clothes Dryer Reliability Act. 

• A bipartisan bill intended to improve IAQ in buildings, and in schools and child-care facilities in particular, was introduced in the House and won support from industry groups. No House vote was taken, however, on the Indoor Air Quality and Healthy Schools Act of 2024. 

• The Inflation Reduction Act-funded rebate programs, offered by individual states and U.S. territories for the purchase of certain high-efficiency HVAC equipment and home energy-saving measures, gathered momentum. As of November 18, 10 states and the District of Columbia were offering rebates, nine states had won funding approval but had not begun offering rebates, and the remaining 30 states and all five U.S. territories were either preparing a funding application or had submitted one to DOE. The state of South Dakota is not participating.