{"id":1509106,"date":"2026-05-22T08:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1509106"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:24:30","slug":"trump-eases-refrigerant-rule-in-a-bid-to-address-surging-grocery-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1509106","title":{"rendered":"Trump eases refrigerant rule in a bid to address surging grocery costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration on Thursday loosened federal rules<\/a> requiring grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cooling equipment, a step that President Donald Trump<\/a> said would help lower grocery costs.<\/p>\n

Trump said at a White House ceremony that the action by the Environmental Protection Agency would \u201csubstantially lower costs for consumers\u201d by delaying costly restrictions that limit the type of refrigerants U.S. businesses and families can use.<\/p>\n

The move to relax the Biden-era rules<\/a> on harmful pollutants known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, emitted by refrigerators and other appliances was the latest attempt by the Republican administration before pivotal elections in November to try to address rising voter concerns over the cost of living.<\/p>\n

It is not clear how much or how quickly grocery prices could be impacted. Industry groups said it could even raise prices because manufacturers have already redesigned products, retooled factories and trained workers to build and service next-generation refrigerant equipment.<\/p>\n

Inflation in the United States increased to 3.8% annually<\/a> in April, amid price spikes caused by the Iran war<\/a> and Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs<\/a>. Inflation is now outpacing wage gains as the war has kept oil and gasoline prices high.<\/p>\n

The regulation from the Democratic Biden administration was \u201cunnecessary and costly and actually makes the machinery worse,\u201d Trump said at a ceremony joined by top executives from Kroger, Piggly Wiggly and other grocery chains. He said the EPA action would protect hundreds of thousands of jobs and save Americans more than $2 billion a year.<\/p>\n

The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, which represents more than 330 HVAC manufacturers and commercial refrigeration companies, said the change in approach would \u201cinject uncertainty across the market\u201d and could even raise prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rule works against basic supply and demand,\u201d said Stephen Yurek, the group\u2019s president and CEO. \u201cBy extending the compliance deadline\u201d for phasing out HFCs, the administration \u201cis maintaining and even increasing demand in the market for existing refrigerants while supply continues to fall.”<\/p>\n

The net result will be \u201chigher service costs and higher costs for consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump once supported limits on refrigerant pollutants<\/h4>\n

Trump’s action marks a reversal after he signed a law in his first term aimed at reducing harmful, planet-warming pollutants emitted by refrigerators<\/a> and air conditioners. That bipartisan measure brought environmentalists and major business groups into rare alignment on the contentious issue of climate change and won praise across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

The 2020 law reflected a broad bipartisan consensus on the need to quickly phase out domestic use of HFCs, which are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide and are considered a major driver of global warming.<\/p>\n

The EPA action highlights the second Trump administration\u2019s drive to roll back regulations perceived as climate-friendly<\/a>. The plan is among a series of sweeping environmental changes that the agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, has said will put a \u201cdagger through the heart of climate change religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmentalists criticized the administration\u2019s actions, saying the new rule would exacerbate climate pollution while disrupting a yearslong industry transition to new coolants as an alternative to HFCs.<\/p>\n

The law pushed industry toward less harmful alternatives<\/h4>\n

The 2020 law signed by Trump, known as the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act<\/a>, phased out HFCs as part of an international agreement<\/a> on ozone pollution. The law accelerated an industry shift to alternative refrigerants that use less harmful chemicals and are widely available.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Chemistry Council, the top lobbying group for the chemical industry, were among numerous business groups that supported the law and an international deal on pollutants, known as the Kigali Amendment<\/a>, as victories for jobs and the environment. U.S. companies such as Chemours and Honeywell developed and produce the alternative refrigerants sold in the United States and around the world.<\/p>\n

The 2023 rule, now being relaxed, imposed steep restrictions on HFCs starting in 2026<\/a>. Zeldin said the rule from the Democratic Biden administration did not give companies enough time to comply and that the rapid switch to other refrigerants caused shortages and price increases last year. Some in the industry dispute this.<\/p>\n

The Food Industry Association, which represents grocery stores and suppliers, applauded the EPA action.<\/p>\n

The earlier rule \u201cimposed significant costs and unrealistic compliance requirements and timelines that threatened to drive up grocery prices and create substantial implementation challenges for food retailers,” said Leslie Sarasin, the group’s president and CEO.<\/p>\n

New rule ensures an \u2018orderly transition,\u2019 grocer says<\/h4>\n

Kroger CEO Greg Foran, whose company operates 2,700 U.S. stores, told Trump the EPA action ensures \u201can orderly transition\u201d that allows the company to update its equipment \u201cin a way which keeps the price of groceries down. And that\u2019s something that we\u2019re desperately focusing on, Mr. President.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin McDaniel, whose company operates 14 Piggly Wiggly stores in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, said the Biden-era rule would have forced many independent grocers out of business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was thrown together too fast,” he said. \u201cThe technology is not there yet. It\u2019s just way too fast. That\u2019s the problem. Good idea, but it\u2019s terrible.”<\/p>\n

David Doniger, a senior strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Trump’s action \u201ca lose-lose for the environment and the economy. It will harm consumers and the climate and reduce American competitiveness in the global markets emerging for environmentally safer refrigerants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than address affordability, Trump is imposing \u201cthinly veiled environmental rollbacks that leave the United States stuck with outdated technologies of the past,\u201d Doniger said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration on Thursday loosened federal rules requiring grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cooling equipment, a step that President Donald Trump said would help lower grocery costs. Trump said at a White House ceremony that the action by the Environmental Protection Agency would \u201csubstantially lower … Continue reading Trump eases refrigerant rule in a bid to address surging grocery costs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news-archive"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-05 23:48:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1509106"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1509607,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509106\/revisions\/1509607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1509106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1509106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1509106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}