Valley congressman: Requiring zero-emission locomotives will harm supply-chain infrastructure | Opinion

America’s supply-chain infrastructure is critical to the function and operation of the U.S. economy. Whether it’s students purchasing needed supplies for the school year, families buying groceries and essential products each week, the manufacturer obtaining the needed part to fix necessary equipment, or a farmer sending agricultural products to international markets — everything is reliant on a system of networks to get where it needs to go.

Many don’t notice all the steps needed for our nation’s supply chain to function until it’s disrupted. Our railroads form an essential part of how we move products across California and the nation.

At this moment, the California Air Resources Board is pushing a costly and unworkable regulation that would have devastating impacts to America’s railroad operations.

Quietly titled the “In-Use Locomotive Regulation,” CARB is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver to allow it to mandate zero-emissions locomotives in California, starting in some cases by 2030 and across-the-board by 2035, ignoring the fact that the technology to do this cannot support this large-scale project.

CARB’s overreach and complete disregard of economic and scientific reality will have negative consequences that will ripple across our economy and impact households. To protect America’s supply chain and interstate commerce, the EPA must reject CARB’s waiver request.

Imagine two-thirds of the country’s locomotives not being able to operate in California. Short line railroad operations that move products and parts across our communities would cease to exist and be forced to go out of business. Larger rail operations would be forced to divert resources away from needed rail infrastructure. And worse, the estimated tens of billions of dollars in additional costs from this overreaching regulation would lead to higher costs on everyday products in stores at a time when we all feel the financial pain of inflation.

As I questioned CARB at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, it was abundantly clear that CARB’s analysis was flawed and based on unreasonable assumptions jeopardizing the operation of a national rail network that supports critical manufacturing, energy, agricultural, and retail industries. And we must avoid the creation of a disruptive patchwork of regulations from state to state that will harm our economy.

America’s supply chain is a system of systems that must work seamlessly to function. We all saw firsthand during the pandemic what happens when America’s supply chain is strained. Regulations and mandates that hamper our California ports and trucking operations, along with the rise in cargo theft, coupled with this devastating rail mandate, together reveal chokepoints that we cannot ignore.

As Americans across the country continue to feel increasing economic anxiety with inflation and the rising costs of essential products being top of mind, we must protect our nation’s supply chain from self-inflicted disruptions that come from short sighted and unworkable regulations.

We must be vigilant as policymakers to do everything we can to protect and harden our supply chain infrastructure.