SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The railroad industry on Friday sued to block new environmental rules in California, arguing they would force the premature retirement of about 25,000 diesel-powered locomotives across the country long before their zero-emission counterparts are ready to take their place.
California’s aggressive strategy to fight climate change by weaning the state off fossil fuels has produced some of the world’s toughest environmental regulations in the past few years. Since 2020, the state has OK’d rules that would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars, lawn equipment and trucks by the middle of the next decade.
Those rules are designed to slowly phase out gas- and diesel-powered products by
banning the sale of most new combustible engines. But the rules governing railroads would ban the use of locomotives more than 23 years old starting in 2030 and would force railroads to start setting aside more than $1 billion a year starting this fall solely to purchase zero-emission locomotives and related equipment. Due to the crucial role California ports hold and the way railroads pass off trains to each other, the state’s mandate would have huge effects nationwide.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the industry says the technology for zero-emission locomotives hasn’t been sufficiently tested and won’t be ready to carry the load of delivering more than 30 million carloads of freight nationwide each year.
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