climate change, coal, capacity
Sep. 28th, 2009 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitouthttp://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/09/16/16climatewire-big-coal-carriers-navigate-a-risky-climate-tr-5184.html
And railroads, of course.
10 years of planning, poof! There won't be yet-another-line into Powder River after all, apparently. The article is long, and largely focused on the intersection of possible climate change legislation, railroads (and their capacity) and coal (and power demands). Great stuff: who hired which lobbyists, that rail doesn't want to kill any climate bill, just make sure it works for them, uncertainty in terms of power plants will be built works in favor of rail, cause they can just wait to build a line to serve one until after building it actually starts, etc. Concluding with a line which is exactly what I thought when I started the article: coal going away isn't necessarily bad for railroads and there are other things that might switch from truck to railcar (or at least intermodal) in a post-climate-change-law world. I can't help but think that losing the high-volume/low-pay coal shipping in favor of higher margin intermodal or other high value freight could only be good for railroads.
And railroads, of course.
10 years of planning, poof! There won't be yet-another-line into Powder River after all, apparently. The article is long, and largely focused on the intersection of possible climate change legislation, railroads (and their capacity) and coal (and power demands). Great stuff: who hired which lobbyists, that rail doesn't want to kill any climate bill, just make sure it works for them, uncertainty in terms of power plants will be built works in favor of rail, cause they can just wait to build a line to serve one until after building it actually starts, etc. Concluding with a line which is exactly what I thought when I started the article: coal going away isn't necessarily bad for railroads and there are other things that might switch from truck to railcar (or at least intermodal) in a post-climate-change-law world. I can't help but think that losing the high-volume/low-pay coal shipping in favor of higher margin intermodal or other high value freight could only be good for railroads.