Bloomberg’s Editorial Board writes on the folly of California’s proposed freight-rail rule.
- California has proposed a rule that would require locomotives operating in the state to be fully electric by 2035.
- If finalized, this rule will increase costs for consumers, hurt supply chains, and hamstring climate progress (by forcing companies to use more emissions-heavy forms of transportation).
- Rather than turning to restrictive mandates, policymakers should modernize regulations to spur innovation and climate progress.
“California says the new costs can be passed along to customers. But this makes the effort all the more misguided. Trains produce about one-tenth the greenhouse gasses per ton-mile as trucks; to the extent that this rule induces companies to ship by road instead of rail, it will actually worsen the problem it intends to solve. More to the point, railroads — which produce just 2% of transportation emissions nationwide — are the wrong target for such heavy-handed intervention.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
