Bipartisan foursome pushes Green Railcar Enhancement Act

In a call to “save a critical domestic industry,” four U.S. House representatives have introduced the Green Railcar Enhancement Act of 2010, designed to provide tax credits to bolster U.S. freight railcar repair and replacement—and save between 32,000 and 50,000 jobs.

During a media teleconference Wednesday, lead sponsors Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore., pictured at left) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) stressed the bipartisan support for the bill, H.R. 1806, which Blumenauer said now has garnered support from 50House members, “more than 20 from each party.” Blumenauer acknowledged no comparable progress yet in the Senate but expressed optimism that such progress would come.

The teleconference was cosponsored by the ARCI Committee of the Railway Supply Institute. RSI information concerning the act is available here.

“We’re very excited about a movement here; it’s bipartisan legislation that will help to save a critical domestic industry” which, Blumenauer suggested, might be on the verge of collapse. “We’re concerned that” [existing operators] may not weather the recession.” 

The proposed legislation would be good for U.S. domestic manufacturing and the environment, Blumenauer and Brady asserted. Brady cited Dallas-based Trinity Industries, Inc. as one company in his congressional district that could use the assistance; for his part, Blumenauer cited The Greenbrier Cos. of Lake Oswego, Ore., as a local beneficiary. Brady, responding to a question on other potential beneficiaries, noted “1,200 companies that own railcars, [and] more than half of them own fewer than 100 railcars,” suggesting the Act would aid large and small shippers.

The Act “would provide a 25% tax credit for replacing orrebuilding old railcars,” with the cars requiring certification, during a twoyear period—cars “built this year or next,” Blumenauer said. Projected costwould be less than $1 billion, “probably $800 million,” for production of anestimated 65,000 freight cars that “would put 30,000 to 50,000 people to work.” The upgrades would have tomeet mimimal standards of an 8% increase in cargo capacity or fuel efficiency,targets the sponsors said were endorsed by the supply industry.

The two-year proposed focus of the bill (2010 and 2011) “helpsour economy when it’s needed,” Brady said.

The teleconference also included a recorded statement from James Ungar, vice chairman of St. Charles, Mo.-based American Railcar Industries. Ungar said domestic railcar building “has virtually collapsed,” costing the nation 54,000 jobs. The Act, he said, was  “absolutely necessary to save our industry.” Ungar insisted the Act was “not a handout; we estimate we can put back to work 50,000 people, ”thus saving  unemployment costs and other cost items, while saving fuel use and reducing CO2 emissions by 800,000 pounds per year.” Ungar also cited the benefits a strong domestic railcar supply sector offered to national security.

Other original sponsors of the bill include Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.).