Spanish Auto Repairers Reject Refrigerant-Gas Tax

MADRID – The Spanish Federation of Automotive Professionals (CONEPA), one of the country’s main associations of car repairers, is opposing a proposed tax on fluorinated gases used as refrigerants.

The trade group contends it would be unfair for its members, mainly small and medium-size businesses, to pay an indirect tax of about €5 ($6.65) per kilogram of HFC-134a gas.

CONEPA argues its members already are heavily controlled and regulated; the new tax would contribute to the growth of the underground economy; and the levy would be inconsistent with environmental laws holding producers responsible for products that cause contamination.

The federation also contends fluorinated-gas emissions virtually have ceased due to new technologies and the fact that the automobile air-conditioning recharging must be handled by skilled workers with official certification.

The tax also is being criticized by Spanish climatologist Anton Uriarte, who writes in his blog CO2 that the Ministry of Finance, under the guise of fighting global warming, is interested basically in raising €380 million ($503.9 million).

"Paradoxically, most of the refrigerant gases from air conditioners and refrigerators that are now going to be taxed are those which replaced the banned CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) under the guise of saving the ozone layer,” Uriarte says.

“It turns out the gas-fluorocarbon substitutes that do not contain chlorine have supposedly a much higher potential global-warming risk.”

Uriarte notes the European Commission admits that one molecule of these gases, the most important of which is HFC, has a global-warming potential 23,000 times higher than a molecule of carbon dioxide.

But that did not prevent them being allowed for use in automotive and other types of air conditioners, and refrigerators because, as CONEPA says in arguing against the new tax, new technologies and worker-training methods have ensured the virtual absence of leaks.