WASHINGTON — Federal regulators today ordered BNSF Railway to haul more coal from Navajo Transitional Energy Co.’s Spring Creek mine in Montana to tidewater in British Columbia.
The Surface Transportation Board’s 3-2 decision, which stemmed from a common-carrier complaint and emergency service order request from the coal producer, requires BNSF to transport 4.2 million tons of coal from the Powder River Basin mine to the Westshore Terminals complex in Delta, British Columbia, this year.
BNSF also will be required to move an additional one million tons this year as additional coal train sets and train crews become available. The board’s order effectively requires BNSF to handle 23 trains per month of coal beginning immediately, and an additional six trains per month as train sets and crews become available.
“The common-carrier obligation is a core tenet of the Board’s regulation of the freight railroad industry and is a pillar of the railroads’ responsibility to our country’s economy,” STB Chairman Martin J. Oberman said in a statement. “Today’s decision reflects the majority’s finding that the common carrier obligation requires a railroad to provide service on a customer’s request that is within the railroad’s capacity to provide.”
Oberman added that the board has previously noted that, “The common-carrier duty reflects the well-established principle that railroads ‘are held to a higher standard of responsibility than most private enterprises.’”
NTEC sought to move additional coal this year due to favorable export coal prices. BNSF declined to meet NTEC’s targets, however, arguing that it lacked capacity to handle additional coal from NTEC and that increasing service for NTEC would mean taking it away from other coal producers who have contracts with the railroad. NTEC’s coal has been moving under tariffs rather than a contract.
But the STB said the record showed that BNSF could comply with the order while still providing service to other Powder River Basin coal producers.
The board also said NTEC prevailed on the four-part test for granting injunctive relief.
Board members Patrick Fuchs and Michelle Schultz dissented with separate expressions.
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