Grain Journal | NGFA Urges EPA to Reject CARB ‘Unsafe’ Transportation Rules

CARB’s “In-Service Locomotive Regulation” states that by 2030, only zero-emission locomotives will be allowed to operate in California. Railroad companies in the state will also be required to make annual payments to an expense account based on emissions from the previous calendar year, starting July 1, 2026.

“We believe that if the CARB regulations were approved by the EPA, rail freight carriers and rail customers would experience significant financial and operational difficulties. The inevitable increase in transportation costs and the introduction of operational inefficiencies for shippers and receivers of agricultural products would result in food price inflation,” said the NGFA and other members of the working group.

CARB’s proposal would require railroads and rail customers to meet unsustainable regulatory requirements, with no solutions available on the market, ATWG added. “In particular, it would be necessary to purchase zero-emission locomotives (…), but such locomotives are not yet commercially viable and this will not be possible in the near future,” the letter stated. “Although limited demonstration projects with battery-powered locomotives have been conducted by railways, they are not currently commercially viable, primarily due to limited operating range and battery capacity constraints.”

The proposed regulations would:

• Impose annual fees on rail carriers for deposits into accounts that can only be used for regulatory compliance purposes.

• Require locomotives 23 years or older to be withdrawn from service starting in 2030, and require new switcher, industrial (rail customer) and passenger locomotives to operate in a zero-emission configuration (2035 for new line locomotives).

• Attempt to regulate exhaust emissions from locomotives by requiring railroads to turn them off during transportation in certain circumstances.

• Imposing significant reporting and “administrative payments.”

The Association of American Railroads and the American Association of Short-Term and Regional Railroads are challenging the rules of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The lawsuit claims that the Commerce Commission’s Interstate Agreement Termination Act gives the Surface Transportation Board exclusive jurisdiction over freight rail operations in interstate commerce and preempts CARB regulations. In a decision issued on February 16, the District Court confirmed the validity of these anticipatory arguments.