The US Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Administration’s proposed rail tank car rule could cost the US economy as much as $60 billion, a report commissioned by the Railway Supply Institute found. The high economic cost is largely due to expenses associated with modal shifts from rail to highways, potential modifications to tank cars, early retirement of existing tank cars, and lost service time for tank cars under modification or awaiting modification, according to the report by The Brattle Group, an economic research firm. “The numbers show that almost two thirds of rail tank cars will need to be idled for some period of time during the proposed modification program,” said Kevin Neels, a Brattle Group principal and a co-author of the report. “Almost 1 million tank car years of capacity could be lost due to early retirement and idle time associated with cars awaiting modification,” he said. The report said modal shifts to trucks could result in 65,000 of them carrying 1.4 million loads in 2018 alone, resulting in 11 million additional annual tons of carbon dioxide. It added that it is not clear if a modal shift of this magnitude is either operationally or economically feasible. If it is not, up to 300 million bbl of crude o