NorCal Railroad Under CARB’s Gun

The Mendocino Railway in northern California, more commonly known as the “Skunk Train,” is what is called a “short line” rail service.

And if the California Air Resources Board gets its way, it may move from being short to being invisible.

Even though CARB does not have actual authority of railroads – that’s been a strictly federal thing since John Henry was a steel-drivin’ man – it is trying to force all railroads in the state to make their locomotives “cleaner.”

To do so, CARB had to ask the EPA for a waiver to allow it to regulate in-state operations.  While the agency is pondering whether or not to grant the waiver, Mendocino Railway is pondering its future.

“This would instantly put a number of short rail lines out of business,” said Mendocino president Robert Pinoli.  “And CARB recognizes that and they’re fine with that.”

Pinoli estimated that his company and its corporate sister rails that are part of the Sierra Railroad corporate family would have to spend at least $60 million and possibly up to about $130 million to comply with the CARB standards if the feds grant the waiver.

Last year, CARB approved its “In-Use Locomotive Regulation” that would force railroads to stop using any locomotive it has that is more than 23 years old and replace said locomotive with a zero-emission version.  (by the way, most locomotives, not even including the steam excursion line ones, last for far beyond 23 years.)

Until then, a railroad can either try to buy what are called “Tier 4” locomotives – tier 4 locomotives and other types of tier 4 engines are meant to reduce particulate matter in the air and nitrogen oxide at the ground level, among other things – or it can pile money into a “spending account” to “fund their own trust account based on the emissions created by their locomotive operations in California. The dirtier the locomotive, the more funds must be set aside.”

Of course, CARB passed the new rule despite the fact that it cannot enforce said rule without getting the waiver to do so, yet another example of CARB’s never ending quest for power cloaked in the soft and cuddly but not terribly true claim of saving the environment.

Note – even the big railroads would have to abide by the CARB standard, raising the distinct possibility of having to stop at the state line and switch engines.

The rule, even from a technical standpoint, is nonsensical, at least for now.  “Tier 4” technology is available for locomotives now, but the essentially zero-emission Tier 5,” which CARB wants followed in 2035, is not widely available.

In fact, that type of locomotive will most likely not be available on a broad scale until well after the deadline. In other words, CARB is trying to enforce a standard that will be almost impossible to meet.

“CARB’s regulations are aspirational, but not attainable,” Pinoli said.

CARB did not respond to a request for comment but has previously said:

“Despite the availability of cleaner options, railroad companies have failed to make investments to replace their outdated, dirty locomotives that contribute to the state’s air quality problems and endanger the lives and health of Californians.  It’s time for the rail industry to join and work with us to become part of the solution rather than focusing their efforts on litigation and PR campaigns.”

Ironically, there is (almost) one Tier 5 locomotive in the state and its being built in Sacramento by Pinoli’s own Mendocino Railroad.

The locomotive, said Pinoli, is a small yard machine – i.e. it will move freight cars around and hook them up to the actual trains.

The other irony of the proposed CARB rule is that it will most likely cause more pollution anyway. A train, said Pinoli, can move one ton of freight 500 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel. If short rail lines go under because of the new rule, they will need to be replaced by about four semi-trucks per freight car.

A fear of short rail lines across the country is the fact that many states have tied their own clean air regulations to CARB standards. For example, it took the then-new governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin by surprise that his state, too, will allow only electric cars to be sold new the same year California does.

It is a bit muddy as to whether the new rule – if approved by the EPA – would apply to other states but if it does the pain will be spread nationally.

As an example, Pinoli said a Vermont-based short line that moves 20,000 freight cars a year would be replaced by 90,000 truck trips.

Additionally, a sister line in the Central Valley, if forced to close, would mean another 70,000 trucks a year on the roads in and around Modesto.

Beyond the complication of iffy if not existent technology is the cost.  Pinoli said his company to just  renovate existing locomotives to reach Tier 4 standards would cost about $70 million, or a bit over $2 million per machine.  As to buying Tier 4-ready machines, that could cost about $130 million.

And that is just tier 4 – the cost of then moving up to tier 5 is an absolute unknown (though Pinoli said if they are incompliance with tier 4 by 2030 they would get extra time to move to the zero-emission tier 5 standard.)

While there are a pair of federal grant programs to help pay for the upgrades to tier 4, the cost is still so high a number of short lines may be forced out of business.

‘Without the grants, it’s completely undoable,” Pinoli said.  “Even with the grants, if the regulation goes through there will be dramatically fewer short lines.”

One of the questions unreplied to by CARB was the following:

“When formulating regulations, does CARB consider all of the potential impacts beyond the direct putative (locomotive) ‘clean air’ impact?”

While CARB did not reply, for his part Pinoli does not seem to think so.

“They understand about putting people out of business and increasing truck traffic,” said Pinoli. “But they just don’t care.”

There is no set timeline yet for an EPA decision. However, if the EPA decides in CARB’s favor one can expect to see a flurry of lawsuits within days, if not minutes.