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First arrest of US-made greenhouse gas smuggler
A California resident faces charges under a 2020 law that seeks to curb powerful hydrofluorocarbons that warm the planet and deplete the ozone layer.
Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC
Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images
CLIMATE CABLE | A San Diego man who allegedly smuggled greenhouse gases into the United States from Mexico and sold them will be the first person prosecuted under a 2020 law aimed at curbing climate change.
According to an indictment against him, Michael Hart, 58, purchased hydrofluorocarbons (chemical compounds commonly used for refrigeration) and smuggled them across the U.S. border in his vehicle, hidden under a tarp and tools.
Hart posted the refrigerants for sale on OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace and other sites, and sold them for profit, the indictment alleges. In addition to smuggling greenhouse gases, the indictment accuses Hart of importing HCFC-22, an ozone-depleting substance regulated by the Clean Air Act.
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Hart’s indictment is the first in the United States to include charges related to American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, a 2020 law that prohibits the importation of HFCs without EPA permission. At the time of its approval, the bipartisan law was considered the Congress’s most significant action on climate change dwarves.
“It is illegal to import certain refrigerants into the United States due to their documented and significantly greater contribution to climate change,” said Todd Kim, head of the Justice Department’s environmental division.
Illegal smuggling of HFCs “undermines international efforts to combat climate change,” said David Uhlmann, deputy administrator of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. He noticed the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol sets a timeline to reduce HFCs by 80 to 85 percent by 2047.
Hart’s arrest, Uhlmann added, “highlights the importance of EPA’s climate enforcement initiative and our efforts to prevent refrigerants that are super climate pollutants from illegally entering the United States.”
U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath, who represents the Southern District of California, called the case an “important milestone” and predicted there will be more to come.
“This is the first time the Department of Justice has prosecuted someone for illegally importing greenhouse gases, and it won’t be the last,” McGrath said. “We are using every means possible to protect our planet from the harm caused by toxic pollutants, including pursuing criminal charges.”
Hart was arraigned Monday and pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, including conspiracy, importation and illegal sale. If he is convicted of all charges, Hart faces up to 45 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
HFCs (chemicals composed of hydrogen, fluorine and carbon) are considered potent greenhouse gases and are used in refrigeration, air conditioning, foam insulation, fire suppression systems and aerosols. The global warming potential of an HFC can be hundreds to thousands of times greater than that of carbon dioxide.
Its use has been increasing worldwide due to the global phase-out of ozone-depleting substances and increased demand for refrigeration and air conditioning.
black market
EPA Administrator Michael Regan he said at a 2021 summit that climate protection could be hampered by a black market for HFCs that has emerged as federal regulators have tried to reduce use of the pollutants.
The United States, he said at the time, was “hoping the rest of the world would understand and learn from what other countries are doing to detect, deter and prevent illegal trade.”
European Union authorities, who began phasing out chemicals in 2015, have grappling with an illicit HFC market for many years.
The indictment against Hart says that at one point in 2022, he told a customer he could “get 15 to 20 tanks a week” of various refrigerants. He says he sold cylinders and at one point transferred $1,000 to a “co-conspirator in Mexico” for the purchase of refrigerants. In October 2022, the indictment says, he entered the United States from Mexico with 10 cylinders of “404A Freon” hidden in his vehicle.
An interagency task force led by the EPA and the Department of Homeland Security to prevent HFCs from entering the United States without purchasing permits intercepted illegal shipments equivalent to approximately 530,000 metric tons of CO2 in the first 10 weeks of the program in 2022.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, a treaty adopted in 1987, called for the phase-out of substances that deplete the ozone layer. The treaty contains different calendars for developed countries like the United States and developing countries like Mexico.
Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environmental professionals.
