Protection of Stratospheric Ozone; Listing of Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Substances

This action prohibits certain substitutes for ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program. SNAP implements section 612 of the amended Clean Air Act of 1990, which requires EPA to evaluate substitutes for the ODSs to reduce overall risk to human health and the environment. Through these evaluations, SNAP generates lists of acceptable and unacceptable substitutes for each of the major industrial use sectors. The intended effect of the SNAP program is to expedite movement away from ozone depleting compounds while avoiding a shift into substitutes posing other environmental problems. On March 18, 1994, EPA promulgated a final rulemaking setting forth its plan for administering the SNAP program, and issued decisions on the acceptability and unacceptability of a number of substitutes. In this final rule, EPA is issuing its decisions on the acceptability of certain substitutes not previously reviewed by the Agency. Specifically, this action lists as unacceptable the use of two gases as refrigerants in ``self-chilling cans'' because of unacceptably high greenhouse gas emissions which would result from the direct release of the cans' refrigerants to the atmosphere.