The WSJ Editorial Board writes, California’s climate planners aren’t trying merely to extend their EV mandate nationwide
Our Take, With Doug Sheridan
The WSJ Editorial Board writes, California’s climate planners aren’t trying merely to extend their EV mandate nationwide. Now they’re moving to banish diesel locomotives across all 50 states. Where’s Amtrak Joe Biden when you need him?
The US House last week held a hearing on the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) plan that would ban locomotives that are 23 years or older from running in the state after 2029, pending approval from the EPA. Passenger trains would also have to operate in a “zero emission” configuration by 2030 and long-distance freight trains by 2035.
Chuck Baker, president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, warned that CARB’s plan will harm its members, most of which are small businesses. Those that depend on short-line rail, he said, “will move out of California or just vanish.”
Because CARB is railroading businesses across the country. Its regulations would bar two-thirds of the nation’s locomotive fleet from entering California. Since locomotives can’t be swapped at the state border, the rules in practice would affect trains far beyond the left coast.
“These are not Tesla EVs moving a few bags of groceries around the neighborhood,” Baker explained. Locomotives must be able to haul thousands of tons “of stone, grain, chemicals and other heavy goods and commodities in demanding weather conditions” in high heat or “through California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in the depths of winter, for hours on end.”
Even CARB concedes the technology isn’t ready for prime time. Hence its plan to make railroads contribute to a quasi-escrow fund that they could later tap to buy zero-emission locomotives, someday. BNSF railroad says the de facto tax would cost it about $800 MM a year, more than 20% of its annual capital spending.
This is a recipe for more train accidents and higher freight costs. Dozens of industry groups, including those representing Wisconsin and Pennsylvania manufacturers, have warned the EPA that the “costs will be passed along the entire supply chain and could inhibit rail service at facilities across the country—not just in California.”
Illinois Dem Rep. Robin Kelly told the EPA last month that California’s rule “could inadvertently move freight from the rail sector to heavy-duty trucking sector.” More big rigs on their interstate highways surely isn’t what Californians want. Meantime, California and the Biden Admin are trying to force trucks off the road via their electric-truck mandate, which also isn't close to feasible given current technology.
What’s the point of it all? In the best case, California’s train rule would reduce global temps in 2100 by 0.000063 degrees C, according to an estimate from Benjamin Zycher, an economist at the AEI. California keeps imposing costly rules to banish fossil fuels that will have little effect on the climate. But why should other Americans be forced to ride in the caboose
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You’ll see east Palestine accidents all over the place. Not to worry though, it’ll only affect small communities outside of the most populated areas. Not affecting most woke and liberal cities. That will be another way of regional genocide not to mention lack of infrastructure due to less railroads. Another brilliant idea from California, can’t make this stuff up
Confirmed again: the insane are running the asylum