Pleasant Prairie coal coming in by barge

[greyhounds]

Well, I guess this pretty much proves the Pleasant Prairie plant isn't "captive". I don't know why they didn't build the thing on a lake harbor in the first place so they could recieve coal directly by barge/lake boat and eliminate the truck haul. (it's located something like 4-5 miles from Lake Michigan.)

I have heard from a "reliable source" that the UP considers itself to be "full". That means its pricing managers are going to push rates up. It also means that power company coal buyers are going to push back. Pushing rates up is the right thing to do, but it will divert some business to other modes. But as long as the UP is "full", that don't make much no never mind.

If they want the freight back, the UP will just lower the rate. Otherwise, they can easily replace the diverted coal traffic and stay "full".

I hope your nephew gets a new car, Vegas vacation, etc. out of this deal.

[zardoz]

My nephew drives for a local trucking outfit. He just told me today that his company had a deal with WEPCO (Wisconsin Electric & Power Company) to haul coal from Jones Island (the Milwaukee port) to the coal plant in Pleasant Prairie. He said the deal was for 800,000 tons of coal to ship via barge! He was told by WEPCO that it is actually cheaper to bring in coal this way. He has yet to ascertain the origin of the coal.

His truck will load about 25 tons; his truck gets an average of 6mpg; it is 40 miles from Jones Island to Pleasant Prairie (80 mile round-trip); he makes about $18/hour; he gets in 5 trips per day, totalling 125 tons delivered each day.

This amount of coal will require 32,000 round-trips between Pleasant Prairie and Jones Island, totalling 1,280,000 miles of truck travel, using up 213,333 gallons of fuel, costing about $586,666.00 (a 2.75/gallon), would take a single driver 6400 days (17.5 YEARS, working 7 days per week at 5 round-trips per day, or 25.6 years working 5 day/week), earning wages of $1,267,200 during this time. I do not know how many trucks my nepew's employer is going to dedicate to this service, nor how long this deal is supposed to take to complete.

When I worked for the CNW (80's), WEPCO's contract called for charges of one penny per ton per mile for Powder River coal to be delivered to Pleasant Prairie. Back then the trains were usually 12,000 net tons; so the cost for each train was about $120,000. 800,000 tons would require about 666 trains at a total cost of around $80,000,000.

I do not have any idea of how much it costs to ship coal by barge. I do not know if this coal is to be in addition to the coal brought in by rail (UP), or if it is in lieu of rail shipments; nor do i know if there are any changes in the source of coal for Oak Creek (WI) power plant, which by the way is building a new huge coal-burning plant. When I get more info, I'll pass it along.