I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1257 
To amend the Clean Air Act to authorize critical use exemption amounts 
for methy bromide as identified by the United States State Department 
for the years 2006 and 2007, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 10, 2005 
Mr. RADANOVICH (for himself, Mr. BLUNT, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. WHITFIELD, 
Mr. SHIMKUS, Mr. HERGER, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. KINGSTON, Mr. ISSA, Mrs. 
EMERSON, Mr. BERRY, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr. 
OTTER, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. COSTA, Mr. POMBO, and Mr. JONES of 
North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Clean Air Act to authorize critical use exemp-
tion amounts for methy bromide as identified by the 
United States State Department for the years 2006 and 
2007, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) methyl bromide is a highly effective fumi-
gant used to control insects, nematodes, weeds, and
pathogens in more than 100 crops in domestic agri-
culture, in forest and ornamental nurseries, and in 
wood products; 
(2) the United States Department of Agri-
culture has spent well over $100,000,000 attempting 
to find effective alternatives to methyl bromide yet 
there are still many domestic agriculture uses with 
no alternatives; 
(3) the critical use exemption of the Montreal 
Protocol allows for the use of ozone depleting sub-
stances beyond the phase-out date if there are no 
technically and economically feasible alternatives or 
substitutes available and the lack of such options 
would result in a significant market disruption; 
(4) accordingly, in 2001, the United States En-
vironmental Protection Agency and the United 
States Department of Agriculture began the process 
under the Montreal Protocol to document the 
amount of methyl bromide needed for critical uses in 
domestic agriculture; 
(5) the United States Environmental Protection 
Agency assembled more than 45 Ph.D.s and other 
qualified reviewers with expertise in both biological 
and economic issues to review applications for meth-
yl bromide critical use exemptions;
(6) rigorous review by the United States Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency of the critical use ap-
plications reduced by 22 percent the amount of 
methyl bromide initially requested by agricultural 
sectors; and 
(7) as confirmed by the Parties to the Montreal 
Protocol in the ‘‘Report of the Sixteenth Meeting of 
the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances 
that Deplete the Ozone Layer’’, the concept of 
‘‘availability’’ in the context of the critical use ex-
emptions shall be primarily guided by the alter-
native’s market presence in sufficient quantities and 
accessibility, taking into account, among other 
things, regulatory constraints; 
(8) after extensive research and technical re-
view, the United States State Department and the 
United States Environmental Protection Agency 
have concluded that the critical use methyl bromide 
that has been requested qualifies as ‘‘critical’’ since 
it has been determined that for each use the lack of 
availability of methyl bromide for that use would re-
sult in a significant market disruption; 
(9) after extensive research and technical re-
view, the United States State Department and the 
United States Environmental Protection Agency
have concluded that there are no technically and eco-
nomically feasible alternatives or substitutes avail-
able that are acceptable from the standpoint of the 
environment and health and that are suitable to the 
crops and circumstances for the critical use methyl 
bromide that has been requested in the nomination; 
(10) the conclusions of the United States State 
Department and the United States Environmental 
Protection Agency are consistent with the restate-
ment adopted at the Sixteenth Meeting of the Par-
ties to the Montreal Protocol of the criteria that 
should be used to approve critical use requests; 
(11) the United States 2006 CUE request rep-
resents approximately .4 percent of the ozone deple-
tion potential from all ozone depleting substances in 
all countries when the Montreal Protocol was nego-
tiated in 1987; 
(12) therefore, given the statistically minor im-
pact on the ozone layer and the lack of suitable fea-
sible alternatives for all uses at this time, legislation 
is needed in order to ensure a reasonable transition 
for United States agriculture to the complete phase- 
out of methyl bromide, legislation is necessary to au-
thorize the critical use exemption amounts identified 
by the State Department for the year 2006, as re-
flected in the Report of the Sixteenth Meeting of the 
Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that 
Deplete the Ozone Layer, Decision XVI/2, Critical 
Use Exemptions Annex, Section IIA, IIB, and Sec-
tion III, and for the year 2007, as reflected in the 
Report of the First Extraordinary Meeting of the 
Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that 
Deplete the Ozone Layer, Annex III. 
SEC. 2. CRITICAL USE EXEMPTIONS FOR METHYL BRO-
MIDE. 
Section 604(d)(6) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 
7671c(d)(6)) is amended by inserting the following at the 
end thereof: ‘‘For the year 2006, the United States critical 
use exemption shall be the sum of the amounts identified 
in Decision XVI/2, Annex (Critical Use Exemptions), Sec-
tion IIA and Section III of the Parties to the Montreal 
Protocol as set forth in Table I and, for the year 2007, 
the amount identified in submissions of the United States 
State Department at the first Extraordinary Meeting of 
the Parties to the Montreal Protocol as set forth in Table 
I. The United States critical use exemptions for the years 
2006 and 2007 established by this section shall not be 
subject to the conflict provision of section 614(b) of this 
Act. The Administrator shall issue a final rule within 90 
days of the enactment of this sentence to authorize crit-
ical-use exemptions of the amounts listed in Table 1 below 
and to allocate these amounts for critical-use exemptions 
for each of the years 2006 and 2007. 
‘‘Critical Use Exemptions 
Critical Use Exemption 2006: 
Critical Use Exemption 2007: 
The amount approved by the Parties 
to the Montreal Protocol (6897.68 
tonnes) recorded in Decision XVI, 
Annex (Critical Use Exemptions), 
Section IIA, and the amount ap-
proved in the interim by the Parties 
to the Montreal Protocol (2194.583 
tonnes) recorded in the Sixteenth 
Meeting of the Parties to the Mon-
treal Protocol on Substances that 
Deplete the Ozone Layer, Critical 
Use Exemptions Annex, Section III, 
for a total of 9092.263 tonnes 
The amount submitted for the year 
2007 by the U.S. State Depart-
ment at the first Extraordinary 
Meeting of the Parties to the 
Montreal Protocol (8425 tonnes) 
recorded in the Report of the 
First Extraordinary Meeting of 
the Parties to the Montreal Pro-
tocol on Substances that Deplete 
the Ozone Layer, Annex III, Ap-
pendix I)’’. 
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