Trump Unravels Biden EPA Refrigerant Rules to Cut Grocery Prices

At a White House ceremony on May 21, 2026 attended by the CEOs of Kroger and Piggly Wiggly, President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (R)rescinded Biden’s 2023 EPA Technology Transitions Rule — the regulation that mandated the rapid replacement of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants in supermarket cases, commercial HVAC systems, and cold storage equipment. The rollback is projected to save the food retail and cold-chain industry $2,400,000,000 annually in avoided equipment replacement costs, with consumers expected to see some portion of that relief at the checkout counter.

The Biden Technology Transitions Rule (88 FR 73098) extended the AIM Act’s HFC phasedown schedule into specific equipment mandates that industry groups said required capital replacement cycles far faster than practical. A typical regional supermarket’s refrigeration infrastructure — walk-in coolers, display cases, ice cream freezers — was facing $800,000 to $1,500,000 in compliance costs per store under the Biden rule, per the Piggly Wiggly CEO’s testimony. Multiplied across thousands of stores nationwide, those costs were inevitably embedded in food prices.

A wrinkle: the underlying AIM Act — which authorized EPA’s HFC regulatory program — was itself bipartisan legislation that Trump signed in his first term on December 27, 2020. The refrigerant industry’s trade group AHRI, which supported the AIM Act’s phasedown schedule, actually opposed the Biden Technology Transitions Rule as going too fast — and also registered opposition to the Trump rollback, preferring a more measured revised schedule rather than full rescission.

• $2.4B/yrprojected industry savings from rescinding Biden HFC Technology Transitions Rule— EPA projection
• $900M/yrestimated annual savings for U.S. supermarkets specifically— Daily Caller / industry estimates
• $800K–$1.5Mper-store compliance cost Piggly Wiggly CEO cited for Biden rule— WA Examiner
• 88 FR 73098Biden EPA Technology Transitions Rule Federal Register citation (November 2023)— Federal Register
• Dec 27, 2020date Trump (first term) signed the AIM Act — the bipartisan underlying HFC law— Congress.gov

The AIM Act (American Innovation and Manufacturing Act) of 2020 directed EPA to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs — potent greenhouse gases — by 85% over 15 years. The phasedown schedule itself was broadly supported by manufacturers, because it was gradual and gave industry time to develop HFC alternatives.

Biden’s Technology Transitions Rule (2023) added a separate mandate: specific equipment categories must transition to low-GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants on a fixed timeline, regardless of whether the underlying refrigerant supply constraints had been resolved. The rule required supermarket refrigeration equipment sold after 2025 to use new-generation low-GWP refrigerants — before the industry had developed sufficiently affordable and reliable alternatives at scale. Equipment manufacturers had to redesign product lines; supermarkets had to replace functional equipment years before end-of-life.

“Under Biden's regulation, every grocery store in America was looking at $1 million in new refrigeration equipment they didn't need. Prices go up, families suffer, the bureaucrats get to check a box. Today it stops.”

President Donald Trump · White House grocery ceremony, May 21, 2026

Regulatory economists are cautious. Savings from avoided compliance costs do not automatically flow to consumers — they first flow to company cash flows and margins. In competitive retail markets (like grocery), sustained cost reductions tend to get competed away into lower prices over time, but the timeline is months to years, not weeks. The Kroger CEO, at the White House ceremony, said the company intends to pass savings through to customers but gave no specific timeline or price targets.

The more immediate relief is capital budget: stores that had budgeted $800,000 to $1,500,000in refrigeration equipment replacement for 2026-2028 can now defer that capital expenditure. Those dollars can fund price investments, employee wages, or store renovations — or stay as retained earnings. Piggly Wiggly’s CEO was direct: “The compliance budget was going to come from somewhere. Now it doesn’t have to.”