Biden Fights Smugglers Trafficking Climate-Warming Refrigerants

The Biden administration has launched a new initiative to crack down on smugglers at US borders and ports. The concern isn’t drugs or counterfeit goods, though; it’s a refrigerant that’s also a dangerous greenhouse gas.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other agencies are arming themselves with new weapons — like AI tools that can pick out suspicious shipments — and rethinking ways of teaming up to combat the threat.

“We’re deploying our enforcement authorities in ways we never have before to combat climate change,” said David Uhlmann, head of EPA’s enforcement division. In early ...