Global Courant 2023-04-27 16:48:23
California’s Air Resources Board is set to vote on its first ambitious rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from diesel locomotives. The proposed rule would address a diesel crisis responsible for 70% of Californians’ cancer risk from toxic air pollution, regulators say. The California rule would increase the use of zero-emission technology and ban the use of older locomotives by 2023.
Every day, locomotives pull rail cars filled with food, lumber, oil and other products through rail yards near neighborhoods in Oakland, Commerce, San Bernadino and other California cities.
They run on diesel, a more powerful fuel than gasoline, and burning all that diesel creates pollution that is harmful to people living nearby, as well as greenhouse gases. California’s Air Resources Board is trying to change that.
The agency will vote Thursday on a rule that would ban the use of locomotive engines more than 23 years old by 2030 and increase the use of zero-emission technology to move freight from ports and across rail yards. The rule would also prohibit locomotives in the state from idling for more than 30 minutes if they are equipped with an automatic shutoff.
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The rule would be the most ambitious of its kind in the country.
“It’s going to be groundbreaking and it’s going to address the diesel crisis that has been poisoning communities near rail yards for decades,” said Yasmine Agelidis, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental organization.
Diesel exhaust fumes are a health hazard. According to California regulators, diesel emissions are responsible for about 70% of Californians’ cancer risk from toxic air pollution. The rule would limit emissions from a class of engines that annually emit more than 640 tons of tiny pollutants that can penetrate deep into a person’s lungs and exacerbate asthma and nearly 30,000 tons of smog-forming emissions known as nitrogen oxides. The rule would also dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from locomotives, similar to removing all heavy trucks from the state by 2030.
The Los Angeles skyline is seen above the Union Pacific LATC Intermodal Terminal on April 25, 2023 in Los Angeles. California’s Air Resources Board is set to vote on a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from diesel locomotives. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
For activists and residents who have lived in areas affected by heavy rail pollution, the fight for cleaner trains has been in the making for decades.
Jan Victor Andasan, an activist with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, grew up in West Long Beach and now organizes residents there. It is a neighborhood near the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that is “surrounded by pollution” from trains, trucks and industry.
“We support rail, but we support rail if they are already doing their best to reduce their emissions,” Andasan said.
Some activists would like to see California go further, such as limiting locomotive idling to 15 minutes. They are also concerned that the increased demand from online shopping is leading to more rail traffic that puts a strain on communities.
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But some say it’s too early to implement the locomotive standards. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, said the rule would be costly for rail companies, and higher costs will mean higher prices for many goods shipped by rail.
The Association of American Railroads said in a statement “there is no clear path to zero-emission locomotives.”
“Mandatory that result ignores the complexity and interconnected nature of rail operations and the realities of where zero-emission locomotive technology and the supporting infrastructure stand,” the group wrote.
Freight trains are an efficient means of transporting the roughly 1.6 billion tons of goods nationwide over nearly 140,000 miles, much cleaner than if those goods were transported by truck, it said.
Kristen South, a Union Pacific spokesperson, said in a statement that the rail company wants regulators to continue working with them to come up with a more “balanced” solution that isn’t too ambitious for current technology and infrastructure.
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Union Pacific is working to partially cut greenhouse gas emissions by spending $1 billion to modernize locomotives and test engines powered by electric batteries, South wrote.
California would need to get permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with the rule, which would be stricter than federal standards. Other states can sign up to try to adopt the California rule if they get the Biden administration’s approval.
The EPA recently approved California regulations aimed at reducing heavy truck emissions. According to the rules, zero-emission trucks, depending on the type, should represent between 40% and 75% of sales by 2035.
Heidi Swillinger lives in a mobile home park in San Pablo, a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area, along the BNSF Railroad. She estimates that her house is only 20 feet from the tracks. She said it’s not uncommon for diesel fumes to fill her home, resulting in a “thick, acrid, foul smell.”
“No one wants to live next to a railroad track,” Swillinger said. “You move next to a railroad because you have no other options.”