(Bloomberg News circulated the following article on March 9.)
LOS ANGELES — Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the nation’s biggest railroads, have sued a California air-quality agency, saying limits on locomotive idling may disrupt the flow of cargo.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s rules exceed its authority because they hinder interstate commerce, Burlington Northern spokesman Richard Russack said Wednesday. The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
The Southern California agency on Feb. 3 set a 30-minute limit for idling trains and told railroads to measure health risks of emissions at 19 freight yards.
The agency said trains produce 33 tons of air pollution daily in the region, equal to the output of 350 factories. Los Angeles is the nation’s busiest port, and half of its import cargo moves inland by train.
“Railroads are responsible for a huge amount of air pollution, and unlike oil refineries, power plants and even the auto industry, they have done relatively little” to curb emissions, William Burke, the district’s chairman, said on the agency’s Web site.
Both railroads have said they are taking steps to reduce pollution in the region. Union Pacific last month said it would acquire 60 locomotives that trim emissions by 80 percent for use in Southern California. Burlington Northern equipped half its locomotives in the region to limit idling to 15 minutes.
Last year, 14.2 million standard shipping containers of Asian goods moved through ports in Los Angeles and neighboring Long Beach, with half of that freight moving inland by train. The two railroads each have terminals about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles to handle imported cargo.
Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern’s terminal handled more than 1.3 million such loads last year.
Omaha-based Union Pacific, which couldn’t immediately provide a figure for its main terminal, has a second terminal about five miles from the ports that processed 750,000 shipments in 2005.
The air-quality agency’s new rules are inconsistent with an existing 60-minute idling requirement and may lead to civil and criminal penalties for violations, Burlington spokesman Russack said.