Meanwhile, methyl bromide emissions are on the increase. According to the sceptics' arguments, we just don't have enough science yet to justify the policy steps outlined by the Montreal Protocol. Recently, US contributions to the Fund have been threatened by the 104th Congress. During the House Appropriations process, several key Republican Members of Congress threatened to attach a rider to the Environmental Protection's Agency budget which would have stripped all funding to the Multilateral Fund. If these efforts succeed, developing countries will almost certainly walk out of the Protocol.
National legislation is under similar attacks.
This action by the US Congress comes on the heels of legislation recently signed into law in the state of Arizona which vows to defy the domestic and global ban on CFCS in 1996. Although state law is superseded by both the Clean Air Act and the Montreal Protocol, this legislative move offers evidence of both the sway of the sceptics and the potential threat of Doolittle's legislation in the current political climate. The fact that such backlash is occurring in the US, which was the world's largest consumer of ozone depleting chemicals and is the central country in the Protocol negotiations, gives these domestic issues international importance.