The Refrigerant Compliance Glossary

The California Air Resources Board, the state agency that writes and enforces California’s refrigerant management, HFC restriction, and emissions disclosure rules.

CARB’s program for facilities with refrigeration or AC systems over 50 pounds, requiring registration, tiered leak inspections, 14-day standard repair, annual March 1 reporting, and 5-year recordkeeping. California layers additional HFC sales restrictions and corporate emissions disclosure on top of it.

EPA’s accident-prevention program for facilities holding a threshold quantity of a regulated hazardous substance, requiring a hazard assessment, a prevention program, an emergency response program, and a Risk Management Plan filed with EPA. In refrigeration it is triggered by ammonia at 10,000 pounds or more.

The practical principle that when federal and state requirements overlap, the equipment owner must meet whichever is more demanding on each individual element — threshold, timeline, retention period, or reporting date.

The full set of obligations a jurisdiction places on refrigerant equipment owners — registration, leak inspection, leak repair, verification testing, recordkeeping, and annual reporting. Both EPA and several states run one, and they differ in thresholds and deadlines.

The 2016 amendment to the Montreal Protocol committing parties to phase down HFC production and consumption. The United States ratified it in 2022.

The 1987 international treaty that phased out production of ozone-depleting substances, including CFC and HCFC refrigerants. Widely regarded as the most successful environmental treaty in force.

EPA’s program for reviewing substitutes for ozone-depleting substances and listing them acceptable or unacceptable by end use. It predates the AIM Act and still governs acceptability for many applications.

The three-year window after a manufacture-or-import ban takes effect, at the end of which no one may sell, distribute, or purchase the restricted product. It lets existing inventory clear the channel.

An equipment-and-application category EPA uses to assign GWP limits — for example “chillers for comfort cooling,” “supermarket systems,” or “cold storage warehouses.” Limits and effective dates differ by subsector.