Announced in April by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the rule is expected to go into effect in October, and would also require that switch, industrial, and passenger locomotives built in 2030 or after will be required to operate in zero-emissions configurations while in California, and in 2035 for freight line haul.

However, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), on behalf of their members, have now filed suit against CARB in the Eastern District of California over that In-Use Locomotive regulation.

According to the rail groups, the CARB rule would limit the useful life of today’s fleet of more than 25,000 locomotives and mandate their premature replacement with zero-emissions units using technology that has not been sufficiently tested in prototype or operational service and is not commercially available on the market today. 

“While the urgency to act is real and unquestionable, CARB uses unreasonable, flawed assumptions to support a rule that will not result in emissions reductions,” AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies said in a release. “Railroads have urged CARB to take the proven path of collaboration and build on our shared successes, but those arguments were rejected out of hand. Railroads are working toward reliable, efficient zero-emissions technologies; however, they cannot simply be willed into immediate existence by policymakers.”

Based on those arguments, the rail groups’ lawsuit says the federal government—not individual states—has exclusive authority to regulate rail operations, due to the interconnected nature of rail operations and the need for uniform regulatory policies. The lawsuit asks courts to freeze the CARB rule until that issue can be settled.

However, CARB says that the costs of replacing the current generation of locomotives will be offset by the health savings of preventing premature deaths and emergency room visits and hospitalizations. CARB estimates that the emissions reductions from its new regulation are expected to be equal to almost double those emitted by all passenger vehicles in the state between now and 2050.

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The Surface Transportation Board (STB) voted unanimously to propose an update of its emergency service rules, which enable the STB to compel railroads to respond when shippers say they aren’t receiving sufficient and timely service.

Among other measures, those rules enable the board to order railroads to share tracks with competitors to get freight loads moving.

The board’s proposal would compress the existing timeline under which a shipper’s petition for relief is considered, speeding up any potential intervention by regulators. And it would create a new category of “acute service emergencies, such as those involving public health or safety issues and imminent and extended potential plant shutdowns,” in which a single board member could rule on a petition within 48 hours.

“This rule is aimed at removing some of the roadblocks that have apparently kept shippers from being able to use the rules,” STB Chairman Martin Oberman said in an interview.

The industry also says that the administration’s stated goal of injecting more competition into the rail industry, including a proposal to compel railroads to share infrastructure with competitors to allow more price competition, will cause more problems and congestion than it would solve.

Oberman has criticized what he views as the rail industry’s focus on short-term profits at the expense of robust infrastructure and labor force to withstand weather and logistics-related disruptions.  

He cited reports of ethanol manufacturers pausing operations while waiting for delivery of the empty unit trains they need to load shipments for market, and of a major fertilizer producer being asked to limit its outgoing shipments due to a lack of train capacity this spring, and major livestock operations reporting delays in delivery of animal feed.

“These shortages contribute to inflation, and you have a huge company who can’t function because the railroads can’t do their job,” Oberman said. “This is a major issue for the economy.”

Railroad industry officials have said the approach from STB and the Biden administration is misguided, and criticized proposals to more aggressively regulate the industry’s operations.  s