STB sets 2014 rail cost of capital at 10.65%
The Surface Transportation Board has set the rail industry’s 2014 after-tax cost of capital at 10.65%, some 6% lower than the 2013 figure of 11.32%.
Surface Transportation Board
STB extends deadline on Tongue River Railroad Draft EIS
The Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Office of Environmental Analysis (OEA) has issued a notice extending the deadline—for a second time—for filing comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Tongue River Railroad Co.’s (TRRC) planned construction and operation of nearly 42 miles of new common carrier line, between Colstrip, Mont., and the state’s Ashland/Otter Creek areas, to September 23, 2015.
Eliasson to STB: Railroads are healthy; let’s keep them that way
Railroads that are revenue adequate and earn their cost of capital should not be punished by capping their shipping rates, which would discourage the substantial and mostly private investment in the nation’s critical rail transportation infrastructure, CSX Executive Vice President and CFO Fredrik Eliasson told the Surface Transportation Board at a July 22 hearing.
AAR to STB: Rail revenue caps a terrible idea
Testifying at a July 22, 2015 Surface Transportation Board hearing on railroad revenue adequacy, the Association of American Railroads, executives from its member railroads and economic experts urged federal regulators “to beware of upending numerous national economic goals” if they choose to pursue re-instituting revenue caps on freight rail companies.
EIA reports rise in oil shipments from Rocky Mountain states
Based on data from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Petroleum Supply Monthly, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has reported that rail and pipeline shipments of crude oil from the Rocky Mountain region have steadily increased as regional crude oil production has increased.
Senate passes S.808
The U.S. Senate on June 19, 2015 passed S.808, the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015, which would authorize appropriations for STB programs, establish the STB as a government agency independent of the Department of Transportation, and authorize other key changes in the agency’s operations.
AAR defends grain rates at STB hearing
Testifying at a June 10, 2015 Surface Transportation Board hearing on the shipment of grain by rail, representatives from the Association of American Railroads legal and economic policy departments said that calls to create new grain-specific regulations are “simply unjustified.”
New rail study: “Policy must tolerate market power”
For more than three decades, railroad regulators have used the same method to determine which shippers are captive; and, if so, to determine a remedy to limit railroad market power and assure rates charged captive shippers are reasonable.
STB sets grain rate regulation hearing agenda
The Surface Transportation Board has announced the speakers for the Board’s June 10, 2015 public hearing, Rail Transportation of Grain, Rate Regulation Review, Docket No. EP 665 (Sub-No. 1), to explore the issue of making the Board’s rate-case process “more accessible to railroad shippers of grain.”
Commentary
Shippers hoist by own petard at House hearing
Poor Mr. Dooley—Calvin, that is, president of the American Chemistry Council and not the fictional Mr. Dooley created during the late 19th century by humorist Finley Peter Dunne. The latter gained library space in Teddy Roosevelt’s White House; the former seemed to hoist himself by his own petard—Shakespeare speak (“Hamlet”) for the bomb maker managing to blow himself up with his own device.