President Donald Trump said new regulatory rollbacks on chemical refrigerants will reduce the prices consumers pay for groceries and will not impact the environment. However, U.S. chemical, refrigeration and air-conditioning manufacturers said the changes will raise prices and his administration’s own projections show that greenhouse gas pollution will increase.
The primary rollback, announced by Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin this month, extends the timeline for manufacturers of air conditioners and other equipment to scale back production of devices that use high-global-warming-potential hydrofluorocarbons as refrigerants. The change pushes back the timeline by several years for most equipment.
Hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, are synthetic chemical refrigerants that can be hundreds to thousands of times more effective at warming Earth’s atmosphere on a pound-for-pound basis than carbon dioxide. Current EPA regulations require equipment manufacturers to gradually make fewer devices like air conditioners and refrigeration equipment that use the most climate-damaging HFCs and instead use more climate-friendly refrigerants. The rules stem from the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, which Trump signed during his first term as president.
