Sound like this is good legal reasoning, since this fee is on "RR cars" not on the volumes or amounts of these dangerous "commodities" carried regardless of mode (which would be perfectly legal). It does create an unfair competitive advantage though "State" imposition of arbitrary fees that apply only to dangerous things carried by RR cars.

It is just a bad law, too. It's the worst kind of "feel good" "over-reach" legislation to pander to the public fears of the "evil" things big bad killer trains carry.....

This is even worse legislation, as it is not really needed, since RR's actually already have legal liability for paying for these cleanups under current law. And, in some potential ways, the worst case with this kind of poorly thought out legislations was a proposed compromise that would potentially reduce some of that RR liability, saving stockholder from that liability, and actually reducing incentives for safety.

Exempting trucks makes no sense, as Caltrans has spends way more every year on repairs from gasoline truck fires and explosions, as well as the cleanup of contamination from toxic material releases and fuel leaks from trucks.

The CTA's Sacramento lobbyist's are just so much hotter, in my experience.