What in the world is going on with R-22?

This past week has gotten a lot of air conditioning folks on edge, what in the world is going on with R-22 refrigerant?  Pricing for us local companies has increased by at least $100 per drum.  To make matters even worse, the supply houses have had their shipments from the manufacturers, for lack of a better phrase at the moment, put on rationing so local companies are in turn able to only buy in very limited quantity.  I heard from some of my colleagues that they were told they could buy only one drum a day.  That may not be a challenge this time of the year, but with summer looking to be hot again this year and a mild winter suggesting it will be coming sooner than last year, the consumer with older R-22 systems could be looking at a bundle of money just to service and recharge their units to get by another year.  The main culprit of all of this for the time being seems to be the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).  Fingers are pointing to the fact that under the Montreal Protocol and the phasing out process of the R-22 refrigerant completely, the EPA somehow in August of 2011 and then again in December of 2011 failed to finalize the adjustment proposal on the table for the years 2012 through 2014.  Basically the producers and importers of the refrigerant were left in a quandary.  On January 20, 2012, the EPA sent out "non-enforcement" letters allowing them to resume their manufacturing process with the notation to keep in mind the proposal in discussion "could" end up with a 45% curtail in production mandate from their last allocation.  Oh yea, and for kicks and grins the actual percentage may not be known until the end of the summer per the EPA.  Hmmmmm if that isn't a great big grey area to work in I don't know what is!  Supply and demand will of course dictate the end result for the consumer, but when have you ever known the consumer to get a break!  It seems to me there are a lot of scare tactics causing this roller coaster ride.  It is certainly worth dropping an email or letter to your Representative urging the EPA to resolve this issue quickly and in a favorable manner for you the end user.  We all agree that the environment is of extreme importance, but this game of limbo will have a detrimental effect in an economic climate where we are all striving to recover from the recession.  No doubt us HVAC folks will be forced to pass on increased pricing and you may hear more about replacement refrigerants or reclaimed products.  Reclaimed means it comes from recovered refrigerants from older units and it has been cleaned or purified and put back up for re-sale.  Keeping my fingers crossed that the dust settles and us little folks come out on top!