The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in two identical federal lawsuits brought in the Northern District of California. One suit was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club; the other by eleven states' attorneys general and one city attorney.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that James M. Owendoff, who has served as a senior advisor to the assistant secretary in the office of Environmental Management (EM) since January 2010, has been named principal deputy assistant secretary in the office of Environmental Management.

We all know that these are interesting times in Refrigerationland. CFCs are history, HCFCs are on their way out, and HFCs are being scrutinized and phased down; dozens of new refrigerants are in the works or have already arrived on the scene; naturals are poised to claim a bigger share of the market; we’re in the Paris agreement and then we’re out, and no one knows what that might mean for the Kigali Amendment; and the Department of Energy is always lurking about, ramping up efficiency standards.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the efforts of 345 leading public and private sector organizations in the Better Buildings Challenge have led to a combined 240 trillion Btu and an estimated $1.9 billion in cumulative energy and cost savings.