President announces rollback of refrigerator and air-conditioning rules, industry leaders praise move

The president announced an executive action to terminate Biden-era regulations on refrigerators and air conditioners, saying the move would cut consumer costs and preserve industry jobs. "Today is my honor to be discussing, the taking of a very historic action to substantially lower cost for consumers," the president said, adding the change would "save Americans well over $2,000,000,000 a year."

The president and hosts introduced a group of retailer executives and trade representatives who said the previous rule forced stores to adopt costly refrigerants and, in some cases, replace entire refrigeration systems. Lee Zeldin, introduced at the event as EPA administrator, said the administration’s action would save "over $2,400,000,000 for American families" and cited a figure of "safeguarding 350,000 jobs." "The Biden EPA face planted when trying to jam through their restrictions," Zeldin said.

Greg Farn, speaking for Kroger, said an orderly transition "reduces both capital costs and operating costs" and helps keep prices down for customers nationwide. "At the end of the day, that's good for consumers because we're able to take that and put that into lowering prices," Farn said.

Independent grocers at the event described potential local impacts. Kevin McDaniel identified himself as operating 14 Piggly Wiggly stores and said the change would have required costly equipment replacements at hundreds of thousands of dollars per store. "Without it, there would've been a lot of independents out of business," McDaniel said. Michael Gay, who said he runs a single store in Claxton, Georgia, said replacing a store’s equipment would have been "unbelievably cost prohibitive" and risked creating a local food desert.

Reporters asked how much the average family would save; the president said the savings would be "very, very substantial" and that numbers were due to be released later the same day. When asked whether companies would pass savings to consumers, Kroger’s representative said the company was "in the middle of doing that" and emphasized attention to pricing for customers.

When asked about environmental consequences of the rollback, the president said, "There is no environmental concern," and pointed to the administrator’s remarks as addressing that topic.

The president framed the action as part of a broader deregulatory agenda, saying it would deliver financial relief without harming environmental outcomes. The event closed after additional audience questions and brief exchanges.

The White House did not provide an implementing text of the action in the transcript; the administration said numeric estimates would be released later and cited projected annual savings and job figures at the event. Absent the implementing document, claims about exact dollar savings and job counts are those stated by speakers at the event.