There’s an invisible climate threat seeping from grocery store freezers. Biden wants to change that.
Juliet Eilperin, Desmond Butler
A customer pushes a shopping cart through the frozen foods section at Costco in Louisville. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News)
Some of the climate impacts of a grocery store trip are obvious, like the fuel it takes to get there and the electricity that keeps its lights glowing, conveyor belts moving and scanners beeping. But then there are the invisible gases seeping out into the atmosphere when you reach for your ice cream of choice.
In nearly every supermarket in America, a network of pipes transports compressed refrigerants that keep perishable goods cold. Most of these chemicals are hydrofluorocarbons — greenhouse gases thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide — which often escape through cracks or systems that were not properly installed. Once they leak, they are destined to pollute the atmosphere.