Ernst Derails Green New Deal Mandate for Trains

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is introducing the Lifting Overburdensome Commerce Obstructions and Motives (LOCOMOTIVES) Act to prevent California and other states from regulating interstate commerce by using the Clean Air Act to force unrealistic Green New Deal mandates on Iowans.

The bill comes after California applied for a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce 2023 regulations requiring all new trains in the state to be zero-emission by 2030 for industrial use, and by 2035 for normal hauling, despite the fact that zero-emission trains are not able to manage the tremendous amount of freight currently transported by rail.

“I am derailing another Green New Deal mandate coming down the tracks,” said Ernst. “We have to keep California’s crazy train ideas from leaving the station. Railroads play a critical role in transporting the goods that our farmers produce and that we rely on every day, and the idea of zero-emission trains is completely off the rails.”

“Freight railroads are the most fuel-efficient way to move goods over land,” said Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies. “There are no commercially available zero-emissions locomotives available today that can meet the operational demands of the freight rail network, despite unsupported claims in California’s now-abandoned in-use locomotive rule. As railroads work toward scalable and effective alternatives, all while playing a critical role in driving the American economy, Senator Ernst’s legislation brings needed regulatory clarity and helps ensure that one state’s flawed mandate can’t upend supply chains across the entire country.”

"We applaud Senator Ernst’s leadership in introducing legislation that would prevent the possibility of unworkable and infeasible state regulation of locomotives involved in interstate commerce,” said Chuck Baker, President of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. “This bill would close a Clean Air Act loophole that could be used by a state to circumvent federal regulation of locomotives and create a de facto national rule that would risk the viability of small business freight railroads. This legislation in the Senate, with its impressive list of original list cosponsors, complements similar legislation introduced by Representative Moolenaar in the House and provides a major momentum boost for finally getting this critical issue resolved." 

Click here to view the bill.

###