House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Sam Graves and other committee Republicans are asking EPA to deny a request from California’s air pollution regulator to implement a rule that would make certain trains adhere to stricter emissions standards.
Graves and his Republican colleagues — including Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), chair of the panel that oversees railroads — hammered the proposal in a letter for being unworkable and called it a “misguided, dangerous, and illegal petition.”
The letter argued that the rule would harm railroad employment, infrastructure investment and industry’s ability to serve the supply chain needs of the shipping industry.
The requirement also would create inefficiencies, they argued, such as forcing railroads to switch locomotives at the state’s border or install electrification infrastructure in other states, they wrote.
