MIAMI — On a hot June morning in Doral, the temperature is already in the upper 80s and a line of colorful trucks and vans has bellied up to a warehouse loading dock for Watsco, the leading South Florida distributor of air conditioners and heat pumps.
Inside the 89,000-square-foot warehouse, thousands of air conditioners and parts are stacked to the 30-foot ceiling. On a busy summer day, a crew of 10 workers might load more than 500 of the cooling machines into contractors’ trucks, destined for homes, skyscrapers, hospitals and office buildings around region.
This warehouse is part of a nationwide push to clean up the air and cut carbon emissions to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. That’s because decades of federal regulation have pushed HVAC manufacturers to use less polluting refrigerants and make more efficient machines that run on less energy.
