EPA Urges Curbs on Profits From Ozone Treaty

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency, preparing to enforce quotas under a treaty requiring production of ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons to be halved in the next decade, on Monday proposed new fees or other regulations to ensure that producers of the chemicals do not profit as a result of the international agreement.

EPA officials said that if left unregulated, the makers of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are depleting the protective layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere, could realize $7.2 billion in added profits from price rises prompted by the forced production cuts.

To keep producers from stalling on the quotas to maximize sales revenues, EPA officials urged that the government claim any windfall by imposing fees or other regulations.

Environmentalists Approve

One environmental group hailed the EPA proposal on CFCs, which are used in food packaging, refrigeration and cleansers. “It is intolerable that the very companies responsible for damaging the ozone layer should make windfall profits off the regulations intended to save it,” David D. Doniger, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. He said the action should have come sooner.

But an official of the Du Pont Co., the world’s largest producer of CFCs, said the company does not expect any windfall and called the proposed regulation unnecessary.

Such action “would only slow down (industry’s) development of alternatives” for CFCs, “and that’s something that none of us want,” Joseph M. Steed, an environmental manager with Du Pont, said.

Facing increasing evidence of the damaging effect of CFCs on the ozone that shields the Earth’s surface from ultraviolet rays, Du Pont announced it would stop producing them four months ago. Other companies that use the compounds in fast-food packaging said they would find substitutes.

Public Opinion Sought

In its announcement Monday, the EPA said it was soliciting public comment before taking any action. It said it is considering three options: Charging manufacturers fees to make up for any added profits, auctioning the rights to produce and import CFCs, or requiring recycling or other control measures.

The EPA offered the proposals as it prepared to bring U.S. production in line with the agreement reached last September in Montreal. The treaty, so far signed by 36 nations and ratified by six, would cut CFC use 50% by 1998. Under terms of the pact, the EPA set quotas for freezing and eventually phasing out production and consumption of the compounds.

The EPA estimated that the curtailment of production, expected to cost up to $40 billion over the next century, by the year 2075 will save the lives of 3.7 million people who otherwise might die of skin cancer due to ozone depletion.