California’s bid to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 is running into more turbulence: industry experts warn that mandates to electrify ports and rail transport will cost Californians jobs and raise costs for consumers across the country.
The alarm expressed by the key sectors of interstate commerce comes as Golden State policymakers already face staggering challenges changing how the world’s fifth-largest economy produces and consumes energy.
As CalMatters recently reported:
“[The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach] are being pressed by state and local authorities to convert ships, trucks, locomotives and other machinery to low- or no-emission propulsion, at huge cost.”
The mandates are already taking a toll. CalMatters notes that traffic into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has declined in recent years due to competition from ports with lower operational costs.
Notably, the ports – a longtime focus of economic development in Southern California – provide the region’s largest single source of employment, supporting 1.85 million jobs, two-thirds of which do not require a college degree.
CalMatters asks the key question:
“Can the industry undergo the massive conversion Newsom’s plan envisions in just 21 years – without becoming terminally uncompetitive and shedding the jobs on which so many of the region’s families depend?”
Meanwhile, industries across the country are expressing concern about the California Air Resources Board’s plan to ban certain locomotives and mandate zero-emission trains starting in 2030.
After all, as the Wall Street Journal reports, zero-emission locomotives would require batteries six to 10 times bigger than those commercially available, and smaller-battery locomotives have been prone to fires and explosions.
Business groups across the country have raised alarm:
“Dozens of industry groups, including those representing Wisconsin and Pennsylvania manufacturers, have warned the EPA that the ‘costs will be passed along the entire supply chain and could inhibit rail service at facilities across the country – not just in California.’”
“[The regulations] would bar two-thirds of the nation’s locomotive fleet from entering California. Since locomotives can’t be swapped at the state border, the rules in practice would affect trains far beyond the left coast.”
Despite the high costs and major impact on interstate commerce, experts say California’s train rule would have little impact on the climate. An analysis of the regulations by an economist with the American Enterprise Institute found it would reduce global temperatures in 2100 by 0.000063 degrees Celsius.
To be clear, a cleaner energy economy is a worthy goal for California to pursue, and there is plenty of good work being done to that end.
But Golden State policymakers should not demand the impractical. Mandates that make little impact on the climate yet add huge costs to the economy will only make California’s affordability crisis worse for working families who can least afford it.
