United States v. Costco Wholesale Corp.

The United States and Costco Wholesale Corp. (Costco) filed a consent decree in the federal district court for the Northern District of California to resolve the U.S.’s allegations that Costco violated the Clean Air Act and its regulations by failing to repair leaks of the refrigerant R-22—an ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbon and potent greenhouse gas—from commercial refrigeration appliances. Costco agreed to pay a $335,000 civil penalty and also agreed to implement a refrigerant compliance management plan, to reduce its leak rate, to retrofit appliances at 30 warehouses to use non-ozone-depleting refrigerants with global warming potentials no greater than that of the refrigerant R-407F, and to install environmentally friendly glycol secondary loop refrigeration systems and centrally monitored refrigerant leak detection systems at all new stores.