EPA Should Reject CA Locomotive Electrification Regulation

The California Air Resources Board last November requested from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a waiver under section 209(e) of the Clean Air Act for implementation of its “In-Use Locomotive Regulation,” an effort to electrify the cargo trains operating in California and therefore across the entire country. As of early January, EPA still has not acted, a deafening silence curious in that the Biden EPA routinely has granted California requests for other waivers, in pursuit of electric vehicle mandates and other such environmental central planning. Whatever the eventual outcome, this delay illustrates the utter absurdity of the CARB locomotive regulation; even the Biden EPA must offer a justification for its waiver approvals that does not elicit ridicule from informed observers.