Written by Seeking EPA waiver to demand tech that doesn’t exist yet
by Thomas Buckley at californiaglobe.com
Considering California’s less than glorious experience with its high speed rail program, one would think it would be wise for the state to stay away from the whole railroad thing entirely.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been called many things during its existence, but wise is not one of them, hence its request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to demand railroad locomotives be replaced with newer, cleaner equipment.
Equipment, by the way, that isn’t really technologically, let alone economically, extant quite yet and will almost certainly remain relatively unavailable by CARB’s deadline of 2030.
Last year, CARB approved its “In-Use Locomotive Regulation” that would force railroads to stop using any locomotive it has that is more than 23 years old and replace said locomotive with a zero-emission version.
Until then, a railroad can either try to buy what are called “Tier 4” locomotives – tier 4 locomotives and other types of tier 4 engines are meant to reduce particulate matter in the air and nitrogen oxide at the ground level, among other things – or it can pile money into a “spending account” to “fund their own trust account based on the emissions created by their locomotive operations in California. The dirtier the locomotive, the more funds must be set aside.”
CARB passed the new rule despite the fact that it cannot enforce said rule without getting a waiver from the EPA – they actually regulate rail emissions – to do so. CARB submitted their request, a public hearing was held last month, and the EPA will make a decision soon, though no timeline is set yet.
According to the American Short Line and Regional Rail Association (ASLRRA), which has filed, along with others, to stop the new regulation, “zero emissions locomotives (required by 2030 by CARB) are not currently commercialized and are in a very few pilot programs in the United States.”
If this sounds familiar, that’s because CARB pulled a similar move regarding requiring that same “category tier 4” classification of motor in all harbor craft (pretty much all boats except fishing boats) starting in December.
Again, the technology simply does not really exist to follow CARB rules.
“Operators of harbor craft in California (other than fishing boats, which are exempt) have until December 2024 to have all their boats operated with Tier 4 engines outfitted with diesel particulate filters (DPFs), attachments designed to burn particulate matter (soot) before it exits into the atmosphere,” wrote Waterways Journal .“The problem is that such DPFs do not exist and cannot be developed by that target date.”
Even the Coast Guard is saying “no” to CARB and will not enforce the boat new regulation.
As to the locomotive issue, that is even more complicatedly absurd. For example, trains do things like cross state lines, for one, so if California had its own rule locomotives would have to swapped out at the border.