Trump’s EPA to roll back refrigerant rule for grocery stores in push it claims will lower prices | Trump administration
The Trump administration is preparing to relax a federal rule requiring grocery stores and air conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gases used in refrigeration equipment. Officials say this is a step towards reducing grocery costs.
Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the Biden-era rule imposes costly restrictions that limit the types of refrigerants that U.S. businesses and families can use.
“The new rule will save billions of dollars by allowing businesses to choose the cooling systems that are best for them. This will be directly felt by American families in lower grocery prices,” Zeldin said in a statement released Thursday ahead of a White House event where Donald Trump will announce the changes. Executives from Kroger, Piggly Wiggly and other grocery chains are expected to join him.
The Republican administration is trying to address affordability issues as voters grow concerned about the cost of living ahead of key elections in November. It is unclear how much or how quickly easing the refrigerant rule will ease market prices.
Inflation in the US rose to 3.8% annually in April due to price increases caused by the Iran war and Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Inflation is currently outpacing wage increases as the war keeps oil and gasoline prices high.
The administration’s action on refrigerants represents a reversal after Trump signed a law during his first term aimed at reducing harmful, planet-warming pollutants emitted from refrigerators and air conditioners. The bipartisan measure brought environmentalists and major business groups together in rare harmony on a controversial issue like the climate crisis and won praise across the political spectrum.
The 2020 legislation reflected a broad bipartisan consensus on the need to quickly phase out domestic use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide and are considered a major driver of global warming.
The EPA action highlights the second Trump administration’s effort to roll back regulations perceived as climate-friendly. The plan is among a series of sweeping environmental changes that Zeldin said would plunge “a dagger into the heart of the religion of climate change.”
Environmentalists have criticized the administration’s plans, saying a proposed rule announced last year would increase climate pollution and disrupt a years-long industry shift toward new refrigerants as alternatives to HFCs.
