President Donald Trump is rolling back Biden administration regulations on refrigerators in a bid to lower grocery prices for consumers.
Grocery prices have increased since the war in Iran, as fuel and fertilizer prices have risen. In an effort to lower costs, Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced at the White House on Thursday an overhaul of Biden administration refrigerator rules that they argued would save businesses and consumers $2.4 billion per year.
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“Thanks to today’s reforms, the American people will have lower grocery prices, cheaper transportation of goods, lower cost of air conditioning, at no detriment at all to our country, zero, including environmental detriment,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to lower grocery prices for consumers. However, grocery prices rose 2.9% over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s latest Consumer Price Index report, which noted that food prices rose 0.5% in April alone.
The EPA, specifically, would revise the Biden administration’s 2023 Technology Transitions Rule by extending the deadlines for groceries and other companies to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, USA Today reported. A White House official confirmed the report to the Washington Examiner. HFC is a synthetic gas widely used in cooling systems that is classified as a “super pollutant.”
The Biden administration rule aimed to restrict and phase out hydrofluorocarbons in new aerosols, foams, and refrigeration/air-conditioning systems. The EPA at the time estimated that the rule would reduce up to 876 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2050, saving consumers and businesses up to $4.5 billion.
The agency is also proposing changes to the 2024 Emissions Reduction and Reclamation Program that would exempt all refrigerated road transport equipment used for shipping goods from new HFC leak regulations. The Biden program aimed to increase oversight of HFCs and reduce leaks from equipment that uses them.
Trump signed the bipartisan American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, which provided the EPA statutory authority to phase out HFCs. In 2023, the Biden EPA promulgated the two rules.
“Americans were right to be frustrated with the Biden-era refrigerant rules,” Zeldin said in a statement. “They didn’t protect human health or the environment and instead piled on costly, unattainable restrictions beyond what the law requires.
“Today, the Trump EPA is fulfilling President Trump’s promise to lower costs and is fixing every problem we can under the authority Congress gave us,” he added. “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.”
The event at the White House also included several grocers and CEOs who expressed support for the president’s actions. However, industry groups contend the changes would be harmful, arguing they would raise costs for consumers.
REPUBLICANS PROPOSE EASING AIR POLLUTION RULES FOR SMALL OIL AND GAS FACILITIES
The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy said that the rule increases the risk of higher prices by increasing demand for existing refrigerants while constricting supply, which would raise costs for supermarkets, the commercial sector, and the residential sector.
“By extending the compliance deadline, the EPA is maintaining and even increasing demand in the market for existing refrigerants while supply continues to fall under the AIM Act. So, instead of falling, refrigerant prices are likely to rise, resulting in higher service costs, and higher costs for consumers,” Stephen Yurek, AHRI president and CEO, said in a statement.
