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The California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a first-in-the-nation
rule on Thursday aimed at reducing the emissions diesel-fueled
locomotive engines generate.
“Locomotives are a key part of California’s transportation network,
and it’s time that they are part of the solution to tackle pollution
and clean our air,” CARB Chair Liane Randolph said in a
statement.
The new In-Use
Locomotive Regulation would ban the operation of locomotives that
are more than 23 years old by 2030, while prohibiting those with
auto-shutdown features from idling for more than 30 minutes next
year.
The rule would also require operators to deposit funds into a spending
account starting in 2024, based on the emissions they generate while
in California. Companies would then be able to use those funds to
upgrade their technology to cleaner alternatives.
Switch, industrial and passenger locomotives built in or after 2030
would be required to operate in zero-emissions configurations while
they are in California, while freight line haul would have to do so by
2035.
“With the new regulation, we are moving toward a future where all
transportation operations in the state will be zero emissions,”
Randolph said.
In order for California to advance this unprecedented regulation, the
state will need to obtain approval from the Environmental Protection
Ministry (EPA) because the rule would be more stringent than federal
standards.
The Golden State must apply to the EPA for a
special waiver because the Clean Air Act includes a provision
prohibiting states from implementing their own emissions standards.
California has been receiving approvals on individual rules for
decades — a precedent that began in 1967, with the goal of combatting
historic Los
Angeles smog.
If California receives the EPA’s authorization on the locomotive
regulation, other states would be able to follow suit.
Similarly, when CARB voted to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035
in August, other states quickly expressed their
intentions to follow.
Locomotives, which are fueled by diesel, emit multiple pollutants into
the environment, including diesel particulate matter, greenhouse
gases, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter, according to CARB.
At the same time, these self-propelled vehicles push and pull
rail-mounted cars through areas where people live and work, such as
seaports and rail yards, the agency stressed.
CARB estimated the resultant reduction in nitrogen oxide and diesel
particulate matter — of which there is no known safe level of exposure
— will create $32 billion in health savings by preventing about 3,200
premature deaths and 1,500 hospital visits.
Environmental activists applauded the board’s decision on Thursday,
with Earthjustice attorney Yasmine Agelidis describing the rule as “a
nation-lead standard.”
“The locomotive rule has the power to change the course of history for
Californians who have suffered from train pollution for far too long,”
Agelidis said in a statement.
“It is my hope that our federal regulators follow California’s lead
and bring much-needed relief to environmental justice communities
living near rail yards across the nation,” she added.
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