Overview

• The proposal would allow certain retail refrigerators to use refrigerants with a global warming potential around 1,400, compared with Biden-era caps of 150, 300 or 700 in specific sectors.
• EPA also plans to push back compliance by up to five years for sectors including residential air-conditioning, retail food refrigeration, cold storage warehouses and semiconductor manufacturing.
• Administrator Lee Zeldin said the changes respond to higher costs and shortages of alternatives, a characterization manufacturers dispute as overstated after a temporary 2025 shortfall.
• Grocery retailers welcomed extended timelines, while the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute warned of disrupted investments and NRDC cautioned the move would keep powerful greenhouse gases in use longer.
• The 2020 law still requires an 85% HFC phasedown by 2036, and the rulemaking will include a virtual hearing once published in the Federal Register, with a potential government shutdown threatening to stall agency work.