No, as I understand it, the Montreal Protocol signed by the
U.S. and other industrialize nations was to ban the
MANUFACTURING, not the use of R12.  The result is that
when the stock pile is gone, there won't be any available for
use.  Thus as the stock dwindles, the price of R12
skyrockets... and in a few years, there won't be any left. The
US being the largest manuafacturer and user of R12 certainly
felt the pain much earlier than other countries... if I remember
the statistics right, California alone has more cars (with air
conditions) than all Asian countries combined.

Yau-Man Chan
87 GL with no a/c

>>> Yi-Ruey Wei <ray.wei@US.PWCGLOBAL.COM>
08/19/98 04:01pm >>>
Eric,
No, it's not fluorocarbons, it's the R-12 itself.  Last time I
heard the R-12 is still not banned in Europe.  Not to mention
Africa, Asia etc. What is good for ozone layer (even if the
claim by EPA was right) if all other countries are still using
R-12 (and release it to the air) and we have to convert to
R-134a and pay huge price for it?  Remember R-12 used to
cost 99 cents??
Regards,
Yi-Ruey Wei
87 Vanagon GL Syncro w/78K miles
85 Jetta GLI w/165K miles
Dallas, TX