Key Takeaways
The Trump administration eased some new regulations that would have increased costs for grocery stores and homeowners.
The regulations date from the Biden administration, which pursued them to regulate the chemicals used in refrigeration and air conditioning to comply with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer.
The limits in the regulations would have required substantial new investment in equipment now, even though the reductions they sought were tied to a 2047 timetable.
Many grocers worried that the technology had not been sufficiently tested to switch to new refrigerants as required by the rule.
Grocers such as Kroger and Piggly Wiggly cheered the flexibility in the actions, which will allow them to comply more thoughtfully and economically without forcing large price increases on consumers.
President Trump is easing Biden-era federal regulations on chemicals used in commercial refrigeration and air conditioning — primarily hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) — in an effort to reduce grocery prices and overall consumer costs by providing businesses more time to phase out the chemicals. This action involves extending compliance deadlines for a 2023 rule and revising a 2024 act to exempt road refrigerant appliances from leak requirements. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin asserts that rolling back these “costly” Biden-era regulations will save businesses and consumers an estimated $2 billion to $2.4 billion annually, create jobs, and directly reduce grocery prices by allowing businesses to choose the best refrigeration systems.
Zeldin criticized the Biden administration’s “rushed, frantic, reckless sprint” to phase out refrigerants, claiming the rules did not protect human health or the environment but imposed unattainable restrictions. The Associated Press reports that, according to some industry groups, the easing could raise prices because manufacturers have already redesigned products, retooled factories, and trained workers to build and service next-generation refrigerant equipment. But grocery store executives from supermarkets such as Kroger and Piggly Wiggly attended the announcement and supported the deregulation to maintain affordable prices.
The White House estimates the changes will result in $900 million in savings, with $800 million specifically for grocery stores, and an additional $1.5 billion from the exemption for road refrigerant appliances. It will also safeguard more than 350,000 American jobs. The changes to the Biden-era rules will allow businesses more flexibility in choosing their refrigeration systems, thereby saving consumers from cost increases.
Background
The Technology Transitions Rule was put in place in October 2023 and originally stated that all technologies emitting higher-GWP HFCs or HFC blends would need to be replaced by January 1, 2025. A later amendment to the regulation in December 2023 allowed for installations until January 1, 2026. These dates did not allow sufficient time to safely meet the new compliance deadlines, and the Biden administration allowed only a few options for compliance. The Trump EPA’s final revisions to the 2023 Rule extend compliance deadlines for the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), making a wider variety of refrigerants available to businesses while still meeting statutory requirements under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020, signed by President Trump during his first term. The added flexibility will allow supermarkets, home AC systems, semiconductor chip manufacturing, and the transportation of medical supplies to meet the law at a lower cost.
The AIM Act of 2020 directs the EPA to phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in the United States, aligning the country with the goals of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international agreement to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs by 80 – 85% by 2047.
In the 2024 Emissions Reduction and Reclamation (ER&R) Rule, the Biden administration established HFC leak-repair requirements for road refrigerant transport appliances. The leak repair requirements apply to appliances that contain at least 15 pounds of HFC refrigerant used to transport perishable goods, even though most appliances in the transportation sector contain more than 15 pounds of refrigerant. According to the Trump EPA, the Biden administration made an error by subjecting the refrigerant transport sector to these leak requirements, even though it poses a low risk to human health, which is why the Trump administration is exempting it. The Trump EPA will also reconsider the rest of the Biden 2024 ER&R Rule.
According to Kroger CEO Greg Foran, the Trump EPA action ensures “an orderly transition” that allows the company to update its equipment “in a way which keeps the price of groceries down.” Kevin McDaniel, whose company operates 14 Piggly Wiggly stores in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, said that the Biden-era rule would have forced many independent grocers out of business. “It was thrown together too fast,’’ he said. “The technology is not there yet. It’s just way too fast. That’s the problem. Good idea, but it’s terrible.”
Analysis
The Trump administration loosened federal rules requiring grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce HFC’s from cooling equipment, which is expected to help lower grocery costs and AC costs for consumers. The EPA actions, a final rule revising the Biden-Harris Administration’s 2023 Technology Transitions Rule and a proposed technical fix to the 2024 Emissions Reduction and Reclamation (ER&R), address expensive restrictions that limit the type of refrigerants American businesses and families can use and how quickly they must be deployed. The actions are expected to save over $2 billion. The Trump EPA is still expected to comply with the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act of 2020, which President Trump signed during his first term.
