Retailer, Safeway has agreed to a settlement for violating clean air laws under which it will pay $600,000 in fines and work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from refrigeration equipment across its 659 stores in the United States.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice have said that the settlement reached with the company is the largest case involving ozone protection under the Clean Air Act. The authorities accused the company of violating the country's clean air laws but not fixing leaks of HCFC-22 from its refrigerators. The HCFC-22 is a heat-trapping gas that adds to the climate change.

The nation's second-largest grocery retailer, which is based in Pleasanton, California, also allegedly failed to maintain proper maintenance records. The company has not agreed to reduce its company-wide average leak rate from 25 per cent to 18 per cent or lower by the year 2015. The company will invest an estimated $4.1 million in new systems, equipment upgrades and other changes to reduce emissions from its systems. Estimates showed that the changes adopted by the company will reduce the release of more than 100,000 pounds of the ozone-depleting refrigerants.