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air conditioners

Chinese Factories Want to Make Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners. A US Company Is Blocking Them

Underwriters Laboratories enacted “safety” standards limiting the use of propane refrigerants. The U.N. suggests the real beneficiary may be the U.S. chemical industry.

By Phil McKenna, By Phil McKenna and Feng Hao

Restrictive safety standards in the U.S. and elsewhere have limited production of propane based air conditioners to just 1 percent of total capacity from 18 assembly lines across China that were retooled to use propane with money from the United Nations. Credit: Feng Hao

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