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I am writing this, my last column of 2009, only moments after I finished the rough draft of a nearly 2,000-word story that appears elsewhere in this issue. That story was written to meet this issue's focus, "Refrigerant Revolution - An 11th Hour Update." It was pretty much a straightforward account of developments throughout 2009 along with some guesses from industry folks as to how things might play out in 2010.
One of the most interesting things about the predictions is that nobody really knows for certain what will occur. The biggest problem is that the story and column were written in mid-November and things that we would like to have been resolved by then, had not yet been resolved. That being said, having been so objective in the main story, I will now try to make some subjective predictions.
ISSUE NO. 1: Waxman-Markey, that big environmental piece of legislation that could affect HFC production down the road. It also has a lot of cap-and-trade issues with it and a lot of cost concerns. It's cleared the House and is currently in the Senate.
PREDICTION: It won't pass the Senate as is. Even after it...