Sponsors (20)
The bill tightens and clarifies emissions coverage to reduce pollution and simplify regulatory scope, but it increases compliance costs for equipment owners and administrative costs for governments.
Urban communities and locomotive operators would face lower air pollution because locomotives and locomotive engines are explicitly covered, enabling tighter emissions controls.
Transportation companies, small business owners, and other regulated parties would have clearer and more predictable regulatory coverage because the bill removes limiting terms (like 'new' and 'subject to regulation') for nonroad equipment.
Owners and operators of locomotives and other nonroad equipment (including small businesses and transportation workers) would likely face higher compliance costs — including retrofits or replacements — because the bill expands prohibitions to explicitly cover more engines, potentially including older equipment.
Federal and state agencies — and therefore taxpayers — could incur higher administrative and enforcement costs due to the expanded scope of covered engines and vehicles.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds locomotives and locomotive engines used in commerce to a Clean Air Act subsection and broadens which nonroad engines/vehicles are covered.
Official title: Amend the Clean Air Act to prohibit State standards relating to the control of emissions from existing locomotives and engines used in locomotives, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 15, 2025 by Joni Ernst · Last progress May 15, 2025
Adds locomotives and locomotive engines used in commerce to an existing Clean Air Act prohibition on certain nonroad engines and vehicles, and broadens the phrasing that defines which nonroad equipment is covered. It revises the statute to expressly include locomotives (including common carrier railroad locomotives) and adjusts the definitions for smaller construction and farm equipment under the same subsection. The change expands the categorical scope of the law (not merely technical edits) by adding a new covered category and by altering the prior wording that limited coverage to “new nonroad” items and to those “subject to regulation under this Act.”