Barclay Damon announces that the New York State Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, has issued a preliminary injunction against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Department) on behalf of their client, Heating, Air-conditioning, & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), in an ongoing legal challenge to New York State’s recent amendment to 6 NYCRR Part 494, which deals with hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) standards and reporting. The decision was issued by a panel of Judges Garry, McShan, Corcoran, and Ryba in the appeal of In the Matter of Heating, Air-Conditioning Refrigeration Distributors International, Inc. et al v. New York State Dep’t of Env. Conserv. Yvonne Hennesey, chair of Barclay Damon’s Environmental Practice Area, led Barclay Damon’s environmental litigation team, consisting of Danielle Mettler-LaFeir, partner; Andrew Carroll, counsel; Thais Dombrowski, special counsel; and Mary Volcko, project specialist.
Said Hennessey, “Amazing work by the team, as securing an injunction against a state agency, particularly a climate-related regulation is incredibly difficult.” The court granted relief restraining the Department from enforcing a prohibition of the sale or purchase of certain bulk refrigerants during the pendency of the underlying appeal. The injunction will remain in effect until the court determines if the broader amendments to Part 494 should be overturned and comes as New Yorkers express growing concern about the affordability and operational impacts associated with the state’s refrigeration regulations.
The pending appeal challenges the Department’s attempt, purportedly under the guise of implementing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, to expand the regulation of the use and production of HFCs without proper regard to feasibility, cost implications and consequences, or realistic timelines for technology-forcing rulemaking. While there is no dispute that government and industry need to work together to reduce HFC emissions and the Department may adopt technology-forcing HFC regulations in accordance with the authority granted to it by the state legislature, in adopting the amended Part 494, the Department went too far. Not only did the Department fail to comply with several procedural requirements for rulemaking and act in excess of its granted authority, but the Department also ignored facts and science to create a regulatory scheme that, in many instances, is infeasible or lacks a rational basis.
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