The Trump administration announced a significant policy shift on Tuesday, proposing to relax a Biden-era rule that mandates a rapid reduction of powerful greenhouse gases used in cooling equipment. This change would impact a wide range of industries, including grocery stores, air-conditioning companies, and semiconductor plants.
This new plan from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threatens to undo what many in both industry and environmental circles considered a rare climate victory: a bipartisan consensus to swiftly phase down hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. These man-made chemicals are known to be thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated that the previous Biden administration’s strategy to cut HFC production and consumption by 85% by 2036 didn’t allow companies sufficient time to adapt. He claimed that the swift transition to alternative refrigerants led to shortages, leaving families without air conditioning during peak summer months—a concern the air-conditioning industry largely dismissed as overstated.
“With this proposal, E.P.A. is working to make American refrigerants affordable, safe, and reliable again,” Mr. Zeldin asserted in a public statement.
This proposal emerged just hours before an anticipated government shutdown, a result of a spending impasse between President Trump and Democrats. Should a shutdown occur and federal employees be furloughed, all pending regulatory work would halt. Such a delay could also postpone Mr. Zeldin’s broader efforts to dismantle numerous climate protections established by the Biden administration.
Globally, phasing out HFCs could prevent up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by century’s end, a crucial step in mitigating the most severe impacts of climate change. Ironically, it was President Trump himself, during his first term, who signed into law a mandate for the EPA to reduce this climate pollutant. This directive was part of a comprehensive Covid-19 relief bill passed at the close of his presidency.
The Biden administration’s HFC regulations, crafted to implement this law, aimed to eliminate the equivalent of 4.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2050—roughly three years’ worth of climate pollution from the entire electricity sector.
Unlike the contentious debate around fossil fuels, efforts to curb HFCs have garnered widespread support across the political spectrum, including from Democrats, Republicans, industry groups, and environmental organizations. As other nations transition away from HFCs, many advocates saw the Biden rule as vital for safeguarding the $206-billion-a-year cooling industry by ensuring a level playing field for manufacturers and fostering the development of sustainable alternatives.
“We liked the rule that came out at the end of the Biden administration,” commented Francis Dietz, vice president of public affairs at the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute.
Mr. Dietz challenged the Trump administration’s assertions regarding critical shortages of HFC alternatives. He acknowledged a brief shortage earlier this year but confirmed it was quickly resolved. He also warned that the proposed compliance delays could undermine the planning and investment made by U.S. manufacturers, who have already adapted production and supply chains to the existing schedule.
“We wanted certainty and we had it and now we don’t, potentially,” he lamented.
However, many grocery store operators had advocated for changes and expressed satisfaction with the Trump administration’s revised plan.
Leslie G. Sarasin, president and chief executive of the Food Industry Association, issued a statement praising the Trump plan for making adjustments “in a way that achieves the intended environmental benefits without placing unnecessary and costly burdens on the food industry.” She had previously criticized the Biden rule for imposing “significant and unrealistic compliance timelines.”
Under the new proposal, sectors such as residential air conditioning, retail food refrigeration, cold storage warehouses, and semiconductor manufacturing could receive an additional five years to transition to alternative coolants.
Environmentalists, however, argue that these changes would have minimal benefits for businesses while posing significant risks to the climate.
“This is not going to make potato chips or computer chips any cheaper,” stated David Doniger, senior strategic director of the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“These are extremely powerful greenhouse gases” that will now linger longer in our atmosphere, he emphasized.
The public will have 45 days to submit comments on the proposal once it is officially published in the Federal Register. The EPA also announced that a virtual public hearing would be held to discuss the plans before any final changes are implemented.