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2006 - The Year of Re-Regulation of Railroads?

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This is the latest press release from mostly Western US rail shippers, mostly in the energy sector. Thar's a perfect strom approachin', and the end result will be re-regulation of the railroads, who apparently have blown any chance to factually mollify the concerns of rail shippers. http://www.westernroundtable.com/news/article.asp?id=1732 Excerpts - "Those dependent on coal shipments for power have reached a breaking point because of dwindling reserves at coal-fired plants due to stalled shipments, forcing utilities to buy high-priced natural gas-fired power to fill the gap." Hint: That means Average Joe citizen, for the most part oblivious to the ag vs rail problem, will be well aware of the utility vs rail problem as those energy bills start to climb, and blame is laid right at the railroads' feet. "There are two bills pending in Congress that would correct these problems, but there has been little movement on either since they were introduced last year. The investor-owned utility's top lobby group, Edison Electric Institute, has expressed concern over the high transportation costs and is advocating new rail lines be built to increase access to Western coal." Hint: The DM&E may not be the only new line to reach Western low sulfer coal reserves. Will we finally see the advent of the shipper-owned rail line? "........plants have become captive to the rates charged by the rails, which in many cases costs utilities as much for the last hundred miles of travel as it does during the first thousand." Hint: The first abuse to go will be those counterintuitive "paper" barriers/bottlenecks. What have the railroads gained by implementing such tactics, other than to **** off the wrong people? These barriers/bottlenecks added nothing to the bottom line. "But they say now the problem has reached epic proportions. Coal reserves at the nation's power plants are at record lows, according to a recent speech by Connie Holmes, a chief economist at NMA. Holmes blames these dwindling reserves, which she says are not expected to grow this year, on the growing problem of transporting coal to market." Hint: Wouldn't it be ironic if the saviour of the railroad industry, e.g. coal, also turns out to be the railroads' Waterloo? "Another solution would be to significantly reduce the $100,000 complaint filing fees to be more comparable to that of federal district court, which charge $150." Hint: If that were to happen, the STB would be subsequently flooded with complaints, to the point of overwhelming the agency into paralysis. There's a reason the STB makes it extremely difficult for rail shippers to heard. ""All these changes could take place without legislation, but so far STB has been pretty unreceptive," says one rail consumer." Hint: Perhaps the STB is itself biased toward the railroads due to cronyism within the agency. Maybe there should be a law that bans anyone with railroad affiliation from serving on the STB.
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