It should be pointed out that any CO₂ reductions that Washington State makes will have little to no effect on BNSF coal and oil train traffic. Most of the coal and oil being run through WA state is not being used/burned there. There is only one coal fired power plant in WA that I am aware of (Centralia?) but that is expected to close in a few years. That would mean only one or two less trains per day. The big boom in oil and coal traffic that BNSF is seeing in WA State is for export, the coal goes to Asia, (China mostly,) and the oil is going to California, with a little bit going to refineries in WA state, but the refined products going to California or overseas. Even if no new export ports get built in WA, Roberts bank in Canada is expanding, which means more coal traffic through WA State to RB, and there are already oil terminals operating in WA State. It is my understanding that the new emission regulations will be applied only to emissions that are produced directly within the state, so it wouldn’t affect fuels that are transported through Washington State but not burned there. Now granted the transportation and export terminals are a whole different can of worms, but like I said earlier there are a few already up and running and personally I think it will be harder to shut down existing operations than to prevent new ones from starting.
So to sum up, my opinion is that I don’t think that these new planned emission standards will affect BNSF or other railroad operations much if at all.
Matt F
Moscow ID