Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T19:10:04.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A retrospective assessment of the costs of EPA’s 1998 Locomotive Emission Standards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 April 2015

Elizabeth Kopits
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

While the need to update EPA benefit-cost analysis to reflect the most recent science is broadly acknowledged, little work has been done examining how well ex ante BCAs estimate the actual benefits and costs of regulations. This paper adds to the existing literature on ex post cost analyses by examining EPA’s analysis of the 1998 Locomotive Emission Standards. Due to data limitations and minimal ability to construct a reasonable counterfactual for each component of the cost analysis, the assessment relies mainly on industry expert opinion, augmented with ex post information from publicly available data sources when possible. The paper finds that the total cost of bringing line-haul locomotives into compliance with the 1998 Locomotive Emission Standards rule remains uncertain. Even though the initial per-unit locomotive compliance costs were higher than predicted by EPA, total costs also depend on the number of locomotives affected by the regulation. Over 2000–2009, the number of newly built line-haul locomotives was higher but the number of remanufactured line-haul locomotives was lower than EPA’s estimate.

Keywords

benefit-cost analysislocomotivesretrospective analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis , Volume 5 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Retrospective Analysis of the Costs of EPA Regulations , June 2014 , pp. 285 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis 2014

References

American Association of Railroads (AAR). (2001). Monthly railroad fuel price indexes.Google Scholar
American Association of Railroads (AAR). (2002). Railroad facts, 2002 Ed.Google Scholar
American Association of Railroads (AAR). (2003). Monthly railroad fuel price indexes.Google Scholar
American Association of Railroads (AAR). (2006). Monthly railroad fuel price indexes.Google Scholar
American Association of Railroads (AAR). (2009). Monthly railroad fuel price indexes.Google Scholar
American Association of Railroads (AAR). (2011). Railroad facts, 2011 Ed.Google Scholar
Chen, G., Flynn, P. L., Gallagher, S. M., & Dillen, E. R. (2003). Development of the low-emission GE 7-FDL high-power medium-speed locomotive diesel engine. Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 125, 505–512.Google Scholar
Dillen, E. R., & Gallagher, S.M. (2002). Development of the Tier 1 emission reduction control strategy for GE-7FDL high-power medium-speed locomotive diesel engine. Proceedings of the 2002 Fall Technical Conference of the ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division, ICEF2002-504.Google Scholar
Dolak, J., & Bandyopadhyay, D. (2011). A computational investigation of piston bowl geometry for a large bore two-cycle diesel engine. Proceedings of the ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division’s 2011 Fall Technical Conference, ICEF2011-60155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastern Regional Technical Advisory Committee (ERTAC). (2012). Rail emissions inventory. Available at: http://www.gaepd.org/air/airpermit/downloads/planningsupport/regdev/locomotives/class2_3_doc2012.pdf.Google Scholar
Energy Information Administration (EIA). (1997). Annual energy outlook. Available at: ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/forecasting/038397.pdf.Google Scholar
Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2011). AEO2010 Retrospective Review. Available at: http://205.254.135.7/forecasts/aeo/retrospective/.Google Scholar
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). (2009). Comparative evaluation of rail and truck fuel efficiency on competitive corridors. Available at: http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/Comparative_Evaluation_Rail_Truck_Fuel_Efficiency.pdf.Google Scholar
Flynn, P., Hupperich, P., Napierkowski, S., & Reichert, E. (2003). General electric GEVO engine For Tier 2 locomotive application. Proceedings of the 2003 Fall Technical Conference of the ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division, ICEF2003-708.Google Scholar
Fritz, S., Hedrick, J., & Smith, B.. (2005). Exhaust emissions from a 1,500 kW EMD 16-645-E locomotive diesel engine using several ultra-low sulfur diesel fuels. ASME Paper No. ICEF2005-1228.Google Scholar
Kopits, Elizabeth, McGartland, , Al, , Morgan, , Cynthia, , Pasurka, , Carl, , Shadbegian, , Ron, , Simon, , Nathalie, , Simpson, , David, , & Ann Wolverton, . (2014). Retrospective cost analyses of EPA regulations: a case study approach. Journal of Benefit Cost Analysis, 5(2), 173–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
US EPA. (1998). Locomotive emission standards regulatory support document. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/oms/regs/nonroad/locomotv/frm/locorsd.pdf.Google Scholar
US EPA. (2005). Locomotive compression-ignition engines certification data. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/certdata.htm#locomotive.Google Scholar
US EPA. (2013). Science advisory board review of EPA’s retrospective cost study of the costs of EPA regulations: an interim report of five case studies (march 2012). EPA-SAB-13-002. Available at: http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/0/3a2ca322f56386fa852577bd0068c654!OpenDocument&TableRow=2.3#2.Google Scholar
US EPA. (2014). Retrospective study of the costs of EPA regulations: a report of four case studies. Report number EPA 240-F-14-001. August 2014. Available at: http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eed.nsf/webpages/RetroCost.html.Google Scholar
Uzkan, & Lenz, . (1999). On the concept of separate aftercooling for locomotive diesel engines. Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, 121, 205–210.Google Scholar