14 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · May 21
The EPA extended compliance deadlines for a 2023 rule pushing grocery stores and air-conditioning companies away from hydrofluorocarbons, while Trump also proposed exemptions from leak-repair requirements on large refrigeration systems.
Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the rollback would cut equipment and compliance costs, save $2.4 billion and protect 350,000 jobs, framing it as a way to ease grocery prices.
The move weakens limits on HFCs, which are widely used in cooling equipment and are considered potent climate pollutants with warming effects far greater than carbon dioxide over shorter lifespans.
The rollback undercuts a bipartisan refrigerant transition that Trump himself signed into law in 2020, and he said he ultimately wants to scrap the technology-transition rule entirely.
Will easing refrigerant rules lower grocery bills or create higher long-term environmental costs?
How will this policy reversal affect companies that already invested in eco-friendly cooling technologies?