[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 140 (Tuesday, September 10, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H5107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FINALIZED RULE OF THE CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, last year in California, the State's air 
pollution regulator, known as CARB, which stands for the California Air 
Resources Board, finalized a new rule that would require freight 
railroads in the State to adopt zero-emissions locomotives for 
industrial use, such as in local yards and ports, by 2030, and for 
normal, long-distance hauling by 2035. It is now requesting a waiver 
from the Environmental Protection Agency to proceed.
  Madam Speaker, the EPA should deny this since this EPA CARB rule 
would effectively require all locomotives to operate in a zero-
emissions configuration when operating in California, including out-of-
state locomotives that would come into California and then proceed back 
out again. One of these noncompliant locomotives would have to unhitch 
at the border and bring other locomotives in just to drive into our 
State.
  This regulation would limit the useful life of thousands of 
locomotives across the rail network and requires a transition to zero-
emission technology. Even by CARB's own admission, this rule will drive 
many short-line railroad operators and rail lines out of business.
  CARB also admits this rule will be shifting the transport of goods to 
trucks, which ultimately are going to raise highway miles traveled and 
likely raise emissions from trucks and the whole window of emissions 
because you can have many trucks hauling up to 80,000 pounds typically 
versus a railroad with the many, many tons they can haul efficiently. 
This is the opposite of the goal of CARB by causing a raise of 
emissions and vehicle miles traveled.
  Rail operators have not yet been able to acquire the full tier 4 
locomotives due to unavailability, and the technology isn't even fully 
developed yet on tier 4 locomotives. CARB, once again, is jumping the 
gun to move to even more stringent standards. Essentially, they are 
mandating tier 5 locomotives when tier 4 locomotives don't even fully 
exist yet. It is just amazing.
  It would make more sense for the bureaucrats at CARB to take a break 
from their carbon-neutral crusade and let rail operators come up to 
tier 4 compliance standards. If they could make the tier 4, you would 
already see a dramatic cut in emissions across the board since these 
tier 4 locomotives are 85 percent cleaner than older technology, 
instead of pushing net-zero locomotives, which seems to be the holy 
grail, on such a ridiculous timeline.
  Since they are obsessed with net zero and carbon reductions, they 
have actually worked against their own goals, as I mentioned, with 
forcing it onto trucks and on and on.
  It is estimated that EPA approval would result in close to 65 percent 
of the Nation's class I railroad locomotive fleet being banned from 
operating in California by the year 2030. He notes that other States 
are going to do the monkey see, monkey do like California does.
  General Van Ovost, the head of U.S. Transportation Command, expressed 
concerns that this regulation will negatively affect the economy and 
military readiness posture of moving military equipment as they need 
to. By reducing this ability to transport goods and military equipment 
in and out of the State from other parts of the country or having a 
lack of locomotives to do so, military operations could be severely 
impacted by this regulation. Imagine if we can't move the material we 
need in a timely fashion because of a California rule if the U.S. EPA 
gives them this waiver.
  A large collection of national, State, and local agricultural groups 
have expressed great concern that this CARB rule poses a significant 
danger to U.S. agriculture and its ability to transport ag products 
domestically or to our ports. Members may remember a few years ago, 
there was a giant port problem in California. It was not an all-out 
strike, but a slowdown of work, where many ag products were left on the 
docks so long that the more perishable produce and agricultural food 
was rotting; it wasn't getting shipped out or, in some cases, even 
shipped in.
  Do we want to add to that problem with, instead of the trucks at that 
time, having the railroads also be in that state?
  It needs to be stated again that the technology required for these 
replacements does not yet exist for what would be called a tier 5 
locomotive.
  Freight railroads contribute only 0.5 percent to total U.S. emissions 
and about 1.7 percent to transportation-related emissions.
  All of this is to reduce the amount of CO2 in our 
atmosphere, which I will remind my colleagues once again, which I have 
done many times on this floor, CO2 is only 0.04 percent of 
the gases of our atmosphere. When Members look at the pie chart, it is 
that tiny, little wedge in there that is typically listed as trace 
gases or other, along with krypton and water vapor.
  This rule will slow the food our farmers grow getting to our tables 
and ports for trade and, indeed, as I mentioned, rotting while sitting 
at the ports. It will delay and raise in price the materials used to 
build and heat our homes. Every stage, of course, of automobile 
production, including EVs, will be slowed down as well by not being 
able to move these materials. The rule causes lots of problems. EPA, 
deny this rule.

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