Local agencies can’t limit train emissions, court rules

Air quality watchdogs in Southern California can't impose limits on emissions from idling trains because they could interfere with interstate commerce that the federal government regulates, a federal appeals court ruled Sept. 15, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The
decision dealt a blow to attempts by air quality regulators in the Los Angeles
region, who have been attempting to limit emissions in the densely populated
areas around San Pedro Bay ports, through which 40 percent of the nation’s
containerized cargo flows. Emissions from trains, trucks and ships carrying the
freight out to the rest of the country have been blamed for 2,100 early deaths each year, according to
statistics from the California Air Resources Board.

The
U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous decision from the U.S.
District Court for the Central District of California.

The
lawsuit filed by the Association of American Railroads and the BNSF and Union Pacific
railroads challenged restrictions imposed in 2005 and 2006 by the South Coast
Air Quality Management District, which covers Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside
and San Bernardino counties.

Residents
and social justice organizations have been particularly active in protesting
railroad pollution in the San Bernardino rail yard area, judged by the
resources board to present the most acute health risk among California’s 18
most polluted rail hubs.

In
cities along the Los Angeles river
corridor, activists have taken aim at diesel pollution from four rail yards,
including BNSF’s Hobart facility, the world’s busiest "intermodal"
yard, which transfers 1.2 million containers a year between trucks and trains.
Diesel exhaust from trains and trucks is blamed for high cancer rates in
several cities along the corridor.

But
the air quality district’s rules are preempted by the Interstate Commerce
Commission Termination Act of 1995, which says state and local laws cannot
unreasonably burden interstate commerce, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit
said in its ruling. The judges noted, however, that the local air quality
district’s rules could eventually gain the force of law if incorporated into
the state’s environmental regulations and approved by the federal Environmental
Protection Agency.

"Obviously,
we’re disappointed in the result," the air quality district’s general
counsel, Kurt Wiese, said of the 9th Circuit ruling. "The board has really
been committed to making sure that railroads shoulder their fair share of
cleaning up the air in Southern California."

He
pointed out the judges’ allusion to eventual enforcement of the local
regulations, saying "the decision certainly lays out a path."

Melissa
Lin Perrella of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the air quality
district and environmental groups throughout Southern California were working
to develop new regulations that would reduce emissions by controlling the flow
of freight from area ports onto the roads and rails.

"It’s
no secret that Los Angeles has some of the worst air quality in the nation and
year after year after year violates federal air quality standards," Lin
Perrella said.