The Trump administration has provided businesses with greater flexibility by easing restrictions on the use of greenhouse gases in commercial refrigeration, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin stated Sunday.
Zeldin emphasized that the agency’s focus remains on implementing the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act—a bipartisan law signed by President Donald Trump in 2020 to phase down refrigerants.
“The previous administration adopted an overly aggressive timetable, more stringent than what the law required, after members of Congress had debated and deliberated,” Zeldin explained.
He noted that this approach has increased refrigeration costs for smaller grocery stores, particularly when parts fail or require repairs. “If a part breaks or needs servicing, businesses should be able to fix it without having to replace the entire system,” Zeldin said.
The administrator added that the new EPA rule, released last week, allows supermarkets to use hydrofluorocarbons up to 1,400 times more potent than carbon dioxide until 2032. It also extends similar flexibility to cold storage warehouses, semiconductor manufacturing, and refrigerated transportation.
Under prior Biden-era regulations, certain sectors were limited to hydrofluorocarbons no more than 150, 300, or 700 times as potent as carbon dioxide.
Zeldin indicated the latest rule is projected to save businesses approximately $2.4 billion.
