The Trump administration is easing Biden-era federal rules that require grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cooling equipment, in an effort to lower grocery prices.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to extend the deadlines for businesses to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) for refrigeration under the Biden-Harris 2023 Technology Transitions Rule.
HFCs are considered a huge driver of global warming, being thousands of times more potent than Carbon Dioxide.
The refrigerant regulations enforced by the Biden administration, according to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, "didn’t protect human health or the environment and instead piled on costly, unattainable restrictions beyond what the law requires."
Additionally, the EPA is seeking to amend the 2024 Emissions Reduction and Reclamation Rule to exempt road and intermodal container transport refrigeration units (TRUs) from the leak-repair requirements established under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act.
"Our actions allow businesses to choose the refrigeration systems that work best for them, saving them billions of dollars. This will be felt directly by American families in lower grocery prices," Zeldin affirmed.
According to USA Today, the Trump administration projects that an additional $1.5 billion will be saved from the reforms.
The AIM Act and Its Reversal
The administration’s efforts aim to reverse the bipartisan AIM Act signed by President Trump at the end of his first term as part of an international agreement on ozone pollution, according to The Associated Press (AP).
The AIM Act called for an 85% reduction in the production and use of climate-endangering chemicals by 2036.
Following the AIM Act, the EPA under the Biden administration announced a rule in 2023 to enforce stricter limits on HFCs.
According to Zeldin, the rule, which imposed a 40% overall reduction of the chemicals starting in 2024, did not give companies enough time to comply with the regulation. The rapid switch to other refrigerants, in turn, led to shortages and price hikes in 2025.
The Reform Can Increase Prices Instead
The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute president and CEO, Stephen Yurek, has argued against the EPA’s new reform, stating that “by extending the compliance deadline” for phasing out HFCs, the administration “is maintaining and even increasing demand in the market for existing refrigerants while supply continues to fall.”
Manufacturers have already adapted product lines and certified models based on the existing timeline, Yurek added. Nearly 90% of residential and light commercial air conditioning systems use substitute refrigerants, rather than HFCs, he stated.
