WASHINGTON – Evergy is seeking more than $22.2 million in damages from BNSF Railway for what the utility claims is the railroad’s refusal to deliver enough Powder River Basin coal to power plants in Missouri and Kansas in 2022.
The Kansas City-based utility argues, in opening evidence filed with the Surface Transportation Board today, that BNSF violated its common carrier obligations by limiting Evergy to four trainsets for much of 2022, which was well below the seven or eight needed to maintain coal stockpiles.
Low coal inventory at the Iatan Station near Weston, Mo., and at the Lawrence Energy Center in Lawrence, Kan., forced Evergy to conserve coal that otherwise could have been used to meet market demands, the utility says.
Evergy claims the trainset limitations were due to BNSF’s failure to have enough locomotives in service as well as to maintain train crew and mechanical staffing at adequate levels.
“While BNSF obviously provided rail service to Iatan and LEC in 2022, that service fell well short of adequate and fully responsive to Complainants’ reasonable needs and requests,” Evergy said in its filing. “As shown … Evergy’s requested and scheduled 2022 volumes were consistent with the previous years’ volumes with which BNSF was very familiar, so there is no plausible scenario in which BNSF could be said to have been surprised by or uncertain as to Complainants’ transportation needs.”
The common carrier obligation requires railroads to provide service upon reasonable request.
BNSF attributed the 2022 service problems to widespread crew shortages that affected the big four U.S. Class I railroads, as well as record snowfall in the Powder River Basin that set back service recovery efforts. BNSF limited the size of customer car fleets as part of an effort to reduce congestion.
BNSF also said Evergy had problems with unloading equipment at one of the power plants, which limited its ability to handle incoming unit trains.
There is currently no dispute between BNSF and Evergy regarding the railroad’s current service levels or the use of Evergy’s trainsets, BNSF said when it sought to have the case dismissed last year.
