Older AC and fridge chemicals amp up climate change. Trump just rolled back limits on them
President Trump announced Thursday that grocery stores and air conditioning companies will be allowed to continue using highly polluting refrigerants under legislation he signed during his first administration.
“This was a huge burden, a huge cost,” Trump said in the Oval Office, surrounded by executives from supermarket chains including Kroger, Fairway, Neimann Foods and Piggly Wiggly. “It made the equipment unaffordable and its real benefit was nothing.”
The move loosens rules aimed at restricting hydrofluorocarbons, a class of climate-damaging chemicals used in refrigeration equipment. HFCs are known as “super pollutants” because their impact on climate change can be tens of thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide over their short lifespan.
With the move made Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency to lengthenDeadline for companies to comply 2023 rule switching refrigerators and air conditioners from HFCs to new cooling technologies. Reducing these chemicals and switching to cleaner refrigerants has long been a bipartisan issue.
Trump too offer exemption From a rule requiring leak repair in large-scale refrigeration systems.
Management framed the changes as part of an effort to reduce high food costs. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the actions would save Americans $2.4 billion and secure 350,000 jobs.
“Americans who wanted to be able to repair their equipment would have to buy much more expensive new equipment instead, and that just doesn’t make sense,” Zeldin said.
David Doniger, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the move would not only harm the climate but also undermine U.S. competitiveness in global refrigerant markets.
“EPA is catering to a small group of companies that are left adrift by derailing the shift away from these climate super pollutants,” he said. “The industry generally supports the HFC phase-out and has invested in making new refrigerants and equipment, which are already installed in thousands of stores.”
Short-term savings from rollbacks will outweigh future costs, said Danielle Wright, executive director of the North American Sustainable Cooling Council, a nonprofit environmental organization.
“Business owners are much more concerned about the increasing cost of keeping obsolete, potentially global warming equipment operating than they are about the cost of installing new, compatible systems,” he said.
Trump dismissed climate concerns, saying his changes “will not have any impact on the environment.”
He said he wants to get rid of the technology migration rule altogether in the future.
