In a major victory for freight railroads, a Surface Transportation Board (STB) attempt to revive what previously was ruled an unconstitutional regulatory scheme has been blocked by the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Surface Transportation Board Regulatory Reform Task Force (RRTF) will host a public “listening session” (hearing) on July 25, 2017 “to hear stakeholders’ views on streamlining the agency’s regulations.”
As a perfect scene does not a great movie make, ideal legislation cannot deliver its intent absent proficient administration.
On May 1, 2017, Great Lakes Basin Transportation, Inc. (GLBT) filed an application seeking authority from the Surface Transportation Board to construct and operate an approximately 261-mile rail line extending around the Chicago, Ill. area at a distance of 38 to 89 miles from downtown and passing through counties in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. The application, among other items, requested a protective order governing exchange and use of information GLBT deemed confidential.
The Surface Transportation Board proposed new rules to help improve and expedite rail rate reasonableness cases.
Two months into the Trump Administration, the Washington Post says his nomination process, leading to Senate confirmation, is moving more slowly than any in history. The New York Times describes “dust piling up in key offices … critical power centers in [Trump’s] government devoid of leadership.”
The Surface Transportation Board announced that it is adopting a tentative new measure of average change in railroad industry productivity for 2011-15.
If Judge Neil Gorsuch is Senate-confirmed to the Supreme Court, federal regulatory agencies such as the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) could be closer to losing a handy, trusted and effective judicial ally in their interpretations of the statutes they administer.
Expediency over principle describes a unanimous vote Jan. 27 by the three Surface Transportation Board (STB) members—Acting Chairman Ann Begeman, a Republican, and Democrats Dan Elliott and Deb Miller.
U.S. Surface Transportation Board Member Ann Begeman on Jan. 25 was named Acting Chairman by President Donald J. Trump. Begeman, a Republican, is currently serving a second, five-year term as an STB Member following her recent nomination by President Barack Obama on Dec. 7, 2016, and her unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 9, 2016.