I once lived in a state that had “blue laws” aimed at controlling the purchase and consumption of alcohol on certain days and times.
The law cut off alcohol sales at 1:00 a.m.
on weekdays and Sundays which meant a midnight cutoff on Saturday night. People knew to stock up on Saturday afternoon for the upcoming 24-hour dry spell but there was another unintended consequence of these laws. When the clock struck midnight on Sunday evening, there was a one-hour “gap” where people could legally buy beer, wine, and liquor. The liquor stores became like a Black Friday Thanksgiving sale with people fighting to make their purchase before that one sweet hour had passed. I’m not sure how the issue was finally resolved but well-intentioned laws and regulations are, at times, not well thought out. That may be the case with the laws to eliminate the refrigerant R-22. People with older systems will be forced to shell out a lot of money to replace their HVAC units or convert an existing system to accept the eco-friendlier refrigerants. Meanwhile, the cost of any remaining R-22 on the market has skyrocketed and people with old HVAC systems are scrambling to get it. This will create a lot of work for HVAC companies and technicians. No one denies that CFC-based refrigerants exposed to the atmosphere are harmful to the earth’s ozone layer, but some studies have shown that accidental freon spills are a “drop in the bucket” compared to other climate-damaging sources. There is some evidence that the ozone layer is a “self-repairing” system and that efforts to control CFCs are working without the need to make more laws.