Summer - Northern Plains Resource Council

land and water
Two reports bolster Northern Plains efforts
Coal exports could
delay grain sent by
Montana growers
In recent months, more Montanans
have expressed concerns about
the impacts of increased coal train
traffic from the Powder River Basin to
existing and proposed coal ports in the
Pacific Northwest.
To provide some basic information
to citizens and local
officials, WORC (Western
Organization of Resource
Councils) commissioned
a study by longtime rail
transportation experts Terry
Whiteside and Gerald Fauth
III. WORC released the study
at a press conference in July.
Since solid numbers are hard to
come by, the study’s authors went
directly to the existing proposals
for new or expanded coal ports.
The proposed capacities of those
ports show how much coal is
projected for export.
The authors used their decades
of knowledge about rail
transportation to calculate how
much coal train traffic would
be required to ship those
volumes of coal.
Titled Heavy Traffic Ahead:
Rail Impacts of Powder River Basin
Coal to Asia by Way of Pacific Northwest
Terminals, the report shows that coal
transport to the proposed terminals in the
Pacific Northwest could exceed 75 million
tons per year by 2017 and 170 million
tons per year by 2022. This represents
a tremendous increase in coal transport
that will require additional overpasses,
Toxic coal ash affects our
members near Colstrip,
who live near leaking PPL
Montana coal ash ponds that have
contaminated dozens of area wells and
surface waters.
Rosebud Protective Association (RPA)
members have been pushing the state
Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) to put a stop to the leaks and
have met with DEQ numerous times
”
The
ability
to ship
effi ciently and
economically
is a critical
component
of success
for our grain
producers
and markets.
– Arlo Skari,
Northern Plains
member and
grain grower from
Chester
underpasses, and other upgrades, costs
which taxpayers have typically had to pay.
“There are many areas along the
railroad routes which will require major
upgrading and expansion of existing
railroad tracks and related infrastructure
which could cost billions of dollars,”
said Whiteside. “State and local
governments will likely bear the brunt
and burden of the related infrastructure
costs in their localities and will likely
be required to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars in related mitigation,
litigation, debt and other costs
associated with the necessary
improvements to accommodate
export coal traffic levels.”
The study also found that
increased rail traffic will affect
grain producers who need access
to rail space. The producers,
the report shows, will face
increased competition for access
to rail lines, potentially delaying
shipments and increasing costs.
“Montana ranks first nationally
in the production of certified
organic wheat and third in the
production of all wheat and
barley. Montana agriculture
brings in $2 billion in annual
revenue, much of that coming
from grain growers,” said
Arlo Skari, a Northern Plains
member and grain grower from
Chester. “The ability to ship
efficiently and economically is a critical
component of success for our grain
producers and markets.”
The report is available at
www.heavytrafficahead.org
and the Northern Plains website
at www.northernplains.org
– Steve Paulson, Larry Winslow
to discuss their concerns. The DEQ
is close to finalizing an agreement
with PPL Montana and will release
the agreement soon. However, RPA
members maintain that they want a
consent agreement that is stronger
and holds the Colstrip power plant
accountable for the pollution it has
created.
On top of this, in June, the federal
Transportation Bill became a potential
Undervalued coal
cost $29 billion in
lost revenue
Taxpayers missed out
on an estimated $28.9
billion in revenues over
the past 30 years due to the failure
of the federal Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) to ensure
that taxpayers get a fair market
value for U.S.-owned coal mined
in the Powder River Basin.
This is a key point made in a
report recently released by
the Institute for Energy
Economics and Financial
Analysis (IEEFA). The
report titled The Great
Giveaway: An analysis
of The United States’
Long-Term Trend of
Selling Federally Owned
Coal for Less Than Fair
Market Value calls for a
moratorium on additional
Powder River Basin coal
sales and a full-scale
federal investigation of the deeply
flawed BLM program.
The vast majority of BLM coal
sales in the Powder River Basin are
non-competitive, proceeding with
only one bidder. BLM coal-leasing
activities neither have been audited
nor subjected to any other publicly
available external review for almost
30 years. This lack of oversight is
especially troubling as a scandal
erupted three decades ago after the
BLM ignored its own appraisals in
leasing Powder River Basin coal for
$100 million less than its value.
“The BLM has historically given
vehicle for legal language that could
have undermined state and federal
oversight of the toxic pollution from
coal ash.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) was on
the conference committee considering
the final version of the Transportation
Bill and was pushing to include this
coal ash language. RPA members
reached out to Baucus to protest
including weak coal ash provisions,
”
BLM is
giving
away coal
so it can be
exported
by rail and
shipped to
China. This is
an outrage.
away publicly owned coal to giant
energy corporations for practically
nothing,” said Ellen Pfister, a
Northern Plains member whose
ranch sits above the Signal Peak
underground coal mine in the
Bull Mountains. “Currently, the
BLM is giving away coal so it can
be exported by rail and shipped to
China. This is an outrage.”
Pfister added, “If BLM is going to
lease the public’s coal, it has to sell
it for fair market value. It’s time
for our government agencies to
start doing their job and become
proper stewards of our
natural resources.”
Given that the United
States owns almost all the
coal in the region, the
U.S. government holds
an effective monopoly on
Western coal.
IEEFA Executive Director
David Schlissel said: “Our
new report makes it clear
that BLM is failing U.S.
taxpayers on a colossal
scale.... As a result of policy choices
and an inherently subjective and
flawed fair market value appraisal
process, the U.S. Treasury has
lost almost $30 billion in revenue
throughout the past 30 years.”
– Ellen Pfister,
Northern Plains
member and Bull
Mountain rancher
Tom Sanzillo, IEEFA finance
director, conducted the analysis. He
has written several studies on coal
plants, rate impacts, credit analyses,
and the public and private financial
structures for coal.
The report is available at
www.ieefa.org and at
www.northernplains.org
– Steve Paulson, Larry Winslow
Bad coal ash language kept out of Transportation Bill
and thankfully, this provision was not
included in the final bill.
Lack of state and federal oversight
of coal ash ponds has created a mess
for Montana’s ranchers near Colstrip.
The Montana DEQ and our federal
legislators need to bear down and stop
the leaking coal ash ponds at Colstrip
to protect the water of adjacent
landowners.
– Natalie Snyders
The The Plains Plains Truth Truth Summer Spring 2008 2012 Page 10