Dude’s smuggling the HFCs because they keep old refrigeration units running and keeps people from having to buy new. And new units are so shoddy and poorly made that - even with the black market markup - it makes more sense financially to buy gas and keep the old ones running. And when big corporations can buy themselves exemptions and bribe inspectors and ignore greenhouse gas regulations completely, I don’t really care about some guy making a living with small time residential violations.
Not to mention the atmosphere is global. If this person didn’t smuggle HFCs into the United States, they’d be used in Mexico or wherever just the same. Throwing the book at him doesn’t keep a single molecule of greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.
And frankly, anybody who thinks there’s no reason to reduce your personal consumption when a hundred big corporations produce 70% of all pollution, or whatever the talking point is, doesn’t have any standing to criticize this guy. You think personal consumption is not a problem? Then how can selling gas to individuals for residential use be a problem?
The solution isn’t throwing the book at random poor people trying to make a living in the hope it’ll discourage the hundreds of others the law doesn’t catch. The solution is better technology and a more equitable distribution of resources so there’s nobody who wants to use the old systems and nobody who can’t afford better.
Him supplying Americans with HFCs is allowing them to refill their old units, rather than get new ones That allows them to continue contributing to demand for HFCs.
I agree that well-made units are better…but that won’t change the fact that it’s cheaper to refill an old one than to buy new
Yep. Which is why any government that’s serious about the environment needs to provide significant subsidies so people can get rid of their old polluting technology without being financially punished for it. We can’t have climate justice without economic justice.
I’m smuggling greenhouse gasses in my dentist’s clinic right now. lol. Kidding aside, it’s a guy selling banned refrigerant, if you didn’t bother to read the article.
Sounds like we need to make the sale of banned refrigerant illegal in the US, if people are going to smuggle it from third world countries that haven’t banned it yet. It’s been illegal in the EU since 2015 to buy/sell them.
