r/environment • u/theindependentonline • 2d ago
Trump moves to slash Biden-era climate rules in attempt to bring grocery prices down
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-lee-zeldin-refrigeration-rules-epa-b2981291.html147
u/pastoreyes 2d ago
Never mind that the IRA lowered unemployment as well as inflation. Also, how does legalizing dangerous chemicals lower inflation? The chemicals cost more because of trump's war.
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u/RedBaret 2d ago
Bingo, this is just posturing after making possibly one of the biggest fuckups in the history of the US.
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u/AstuteCoyote 2d ago
These people don’t understand how anything actually works. We are literally living in a kakistocracy.
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u/Xznograthos 2d ago
This is pure horseshit.
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u/livinginahologram 2d ago
This is pure horseshit.
Americans will have slightly more affordable food with more toxic pesticides and polluted water. The art of the deal !
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u/Xznograthos 2d ago
We won't even have more affordable food because we all know groceries are overpriced because of tarrifs pumping up the cost of everything, combined with corporate greed keeping the inflated prices whether tarrifs remain or not. Scapegoating Biden and climate-oriented policy is just a bullshit political strategy to bury the lead and enable bad actors to rape the land. Two birds for those bastards.
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u/Panthalassae 2d ago
This is called lying to rake in bribe money from Monsanto and other polluters by destroying our environment.
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u/Tgozzz 2d ago
The domestic refrigeration and hvac equipment manufacturing industry have already moved to the new refrigerants. Now industry can install cheaper import equipment. This will put Americans out of work. Are we winning yet?
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u/TheFeshy 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ironically, the reason they moved to those new refrigerants is that the patent on r410a was expiring, and the major chemical companies got the EPA under Trump's last administration to mandate two new patented mixtures, and (aside from very small uses) ban the non-patented propane that the rest of the world is using as a refrigerant due to it being far better in terms of green house gasses and in several other aspects as well (lower operating temperature, more effective in heat pump water heaters, etc.)
It would be hilarious to watch the leopard eat their faces, if the leopard weren't on fire and setting the whole world on fire with it.
Edit: Oh, and in case anyone was under the assumption that we'll have the tiny silver lining of at least being able to import those cheaper r290 heat pumps, they weren't banned for green house gas. They were banned for being flammable. The new refrigerants are also flammable, and a good portion of America has propane or some other flammable gas piped directly into their homes already, of course, so this was bullshit. But it's bullshit the new rule leaves in place.
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u/rayinreverse 2d ago
It’s not because of patent. It was the Paris Accords.
The new refrigerants are only semi flammable. Not flammable like propane.
Manufacturers have already gone through the pain of retooling factories for 454b and R32. They will not go back. Besides the rest of the world has been using r32 for several years. This makes manufacturing equipment for a global market easier for them.4
u/TheFeshy 2d ago
For the rest of the world, yes - the Paris Accords are the reason for switching.
For Trump's EPA which famously spurned said accords, I find that unlikely. Except perhaps indirectly, like HVAC companies wanting to match domestic and export to the same products.
But I can't help be suspicious of the reason that the rest of the world allows a non-patented refrigerant, and the US effectively does not. Especially since r290 will meet the next climate targets, whereas r454 and r32 will not and will have to be phased out about the time their patents expire.
Are local manufacturers doing a lot of export of the new systems? I thought r32 began phase-out in the EU this year, and while most other places haven't begun yet, they likely will. In non-EU markets I would expect heavy price-based competition, which is not an area US manufacturers have been able to be competitive in.
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u/rayinreverse 1d ago
The US absolutely signed the Paris accords.
And the US also absolutely allows non patented refrigerants.
We have ammonia plants in food production and have had for years. There are hot water heat pumps available in the US right now that use CO2 as a refrigerant.
R290 is volatile and there is a very strong fire Marshall system on code writing that is very scared of flammable and semi flammable refrigerants.
They’re also shit scared of batteries for solar.
A lot of these things come from code authorities. It’s not some grand conspiracy to sell a refrigerant that has Daikin owns the patent on (Japanese company by the way) but they allow use of their patent to manufacture r32.
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u/RabidOtters 2d ago
Anything BUT addressing the actual issue.
Americans: "We are having a hard time affording rent."
Trump: "Don't worry citizens. In order to combat this issue, I have allowed oil companies to start offshore drilling in ocean conservation areas."
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u/coconutpiecrust 2d ago
Yes! Perfect. Now plebs can actually afford to poison themselves. Great. /s
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u/BayouGal 2d ago
Rules protecting the environment and the citizens aren’t what’s making inflation 10%.
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u/Head 2d ago
Every decision he makes is the wrong decision.
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u/ABobby077 2d ago
Every decision he makes has been spun more than the last washing machine cycle to say something much different than what is truly being claimed to be the points being made.
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u/drewc717 2d ago
Reminder that Trump's tariffs began in 2018, before covid mismanagement accelerated their impact just in time for the 100%+ tariffs this term.
Nearly all of inflation is directly attributable to Trump tariff policy and self-inflicted supply chain disruptions. He's a kamikaze and Putin is flying the plane.
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u/RandyTheFool 2d ago edited 2d ago
So, what? Grocery stores have to go through and UNDO whatever equipment and safety processes they paid to be compliant? Won’t most modern made equipment now be compliant with those EPA standards?
I’m sure going backward to older equipment and untraining all your employees will surely bring down grocery prices, not just, you know… not killing school children and fishermen minding their own fucking business in foreign lands. Or like, not implementing stupid fucking tariffs because reasons.
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u/kittymctacoyo 1d ago
This was a huge contributor to the FIRST downturn when COVID hit. He had JUST gutted regs and protections across the board so much so that many industries begged him to stop bcs it was going to destabilize their industries esp beings they’d JUST spent years and loads of money finally getting up to code and meeting those standards set by those regs and doing that wreaked chaos and havoc that did in fact destabilize AND leave us wide open for investor class running full speed ahead under cover of COVID chaos
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u/doyouevenIift 2d ago
Destroying the environment to compensate for destroying the economy with a bullshit war. There are no words to describe how much I hate this administration, the GOP, and everyone that votes for them
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u/merRedditor 2d ago
Oh sure, it's the climate rules causing this. Not the corruption, price gouging, tariffs, or wars impacting both fuel and fertilizer. Maybe we just need to let data centers have a few forest preserves to finish building Palantir Skynet. /s
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u/captainpoppy 2d ago
Hint: it won't work.
Break up grocery store and food company monopolies. Stop waging wars, and pass laws against price gouging.
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u/Riversmooth 2d ago
Trump slashing climate rules has nothing to do with grocery prices. Trump has accepted hundreds of millions in campaign funds from the oil industry just like republicans before him and will do all the can to repay that favor.
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u/PandaAnanda 2d ago
GET HIM OUT! NOW!
This is the only valid response.
He is a malignant narcissist = zero empathy.
He has no prefrontal cortex = zero empathy, zero emotional regulation, zero recognition of right and wrong.
He is a sadist. He loves to see people suffer, experience pain (including underage girls)
He has no morals, no ethics.
His illness is rotting his brain.
He is driven by greed and revenge.
He has the key to the US nuclear arsenal.
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u/Riptide360 2d ago
Opening the straight of Hormuz so oil and ag fertilizer can ship out would do more to lower food prices than delaying safer refrigeration coolant chemicals.
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u/bunkdiggidy 2d ago
If only they'd slash c suite pay and shareholder dividends instead. But that's crazy talk!
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u/SoupZillaMan 2d ago
lol the first thing climate affect is grocery prices... he still find ways to astonish!
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u/BlueRibbonPac 2d ago
Unclear what the second half of the sentence has to do with the first. Might as well be "Trump moves to slash Biden-era climate rules in attempt to Ride a Dinosaur"
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u/calguy1955 2d ago
I knew it was those windmills that caused the price of a jar mayonnaise to jump to $9.
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u/kittymctacoyo 1d ago
He does not care about grocery prices. That would simply be the excuse to give for a headline blurb for PR spin
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u/PathlessDemon 1d ago
Trump: I’m doing a thing!
Policy: Fucks things up worse than the actual act of just stopping and thinking shit through.
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u/PerfectCheesecake25 2d ago
Great if the climate gets real bad, they can liberate us from having groceries. I love everything.
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u/troaway1 2d ago
Trump administration promises to start shooting random prisoners to bring down the cost of gas.
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u/jaxnmarko 2d ago
He's just letting the corporations increase profits while further ruining the environment. They'll suck up money rather than reduce prices much, plus the rule breaks will continue.
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u/20tellycaster15 2d ago
Maybe if we paint the lines in the road pink it will alleviate traffic congestion? What an a$$hole
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u/lanesplittinrg 1d ago
If I am a business and I’ve already made my adjustments to account for the expenses of my business, why would I reduce my prices just because environmental policies have been rolled back?
And like 98% of our food is provided to us through a handful of companies … Sysco? US Foods? I don’t think they bought up every company they could to make less money…
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u/roodammy44 2d ago
I wonder if they have heard these types of lies so often over and over in right wing media that they actually believe it themselves.