President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will announce the rollback of two Biden administration refrigerant rules designed to fight global warming, which the administration says will save consumers $2.4 billion.
An estimated $900 million in savings — mostly for grocery stores, whose executives will join the 11 a.m. announcement in the Oval Office — are achieved by extending the deadline of a 2023 regulation that mandated the phase-out of industrial fridges with Global Warming Potential (GWP) hydrofluorocarbons.
Another $1.5 billion comes from the mass-granting of exemptions to roadway refrigeration units covered by a 2024 regulation intended to prevent leaks of hydroflurocarbons. The details were first reported by USA Today.
“Americans were right to be frustrated with the Biden-era refrigerant rules. They didn’t protect human health or the environment and instead piled on costly, unattainable restrictions beyond what the law requires,” Zeldin said in a statement.
“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. 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.”
