BNSF, UP ordered to pay rate reparations
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefThe Surface Transportation Board has ordered BNSF and Union Pacific to pay reparations totaling $9,244,144 to Arizona Electric Power Cooperative for rate overcharges for the movement of utility coal.
In a decision announced Friday, STB noted: “In 2008, AEPCO filed a complaint challenging the reasonableness of the joint rates established by BNSF Railway Company and Union Pacific Railroad Company for unit train coal transportation service from New Mexico and the northern portion of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana to AEPCO’s Apache Generating Station located near Cochise, Ariz.
“In a decision served Nov. 22, 2011, the Board found that AEPCO had shown that defendants have market dominance over those movements, and that their rates were unreasonable. Accordingly, the Board ordered defendants to reimburse AEPCO for amounts collected above prescribed levels. The Board ordered defendants to establish and maintain rates for movements of the traffic that do not exceed 180% of the variable costs of the service.”
On March 20, 2012, AEPCO filed an unopposed petition for an order directing payment of the overcharges as calculated by the utility.
