Posted on 05/02/2010 6:43:49 AM PDT by Willie Green
Jacksonville-based rail carrier CSX Transportation has poured millions into lobbying against a bill that would end railroad industry antitrust exemptions, and another - seen as a watered-down compromise - that would bolster the federal agency that regulates the industry.
The fight against tougher regulations comes at a time when Tampa-based Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc. is challenging what it calls an unfair increase in CSX freight rates affecting shipments of coal to its Palatka generating station. The rate increases upped the companies' costs by $80 million in 2009, a Seminole spokesman said. Overall, the company had $1.2 billion in operating expenses in 2009, according to its annual report.
The two bills opposed by CSX - and the rest of the industry - would not directly affect the ability to set rates. Observers, however, say that the industry's push-back against the closure of antitrust exemptions, coupled with big rate increases that the few remaining private rail carriers can impose, helps pull the curtain back on an influential industry that has been exempt from portions of federal antitrust laws since the 1920s.
"They are one of the biggest lobbying players out there," said Bob Szabo, executive director of Consumers United for Rail Equity, a coalition of rail customers that itself spent $700,000 lobbying Congress in 2009. "Railroads are very powerful political players."
The industry spent $46.5 million lobbying Congress in 2009, a 90 percent increase over 2000 levels, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
We should:
The correct answer is "C. Both A & B."
The individual airlines do not own our airways.
Trucking companies do not own our roads and highways.
Barge and shipping companies do not own our canals, rivers and waterways.
And the Freight Railroads should NOT be allowed to own the railways right-of-way and tracks.
Whenever they do, they gouge the customers because there's no real competition.
.
“Freight Railroads should NOT be allowed to own the railways right-of-way and tracks.”RR tracks require LOTS of inspection and maintenance, not to speak of scheduling of single track operations. Who’s best to do that? The Post Office?
There’s more to the story than that. Going back in history, the railroads, starting with Lincoln, were national heroes, and Lincoln gave them tremendous incentives to develop the frontier and connect the country.
However, before long, the States decided to start squeezing the golden goose, adding their own taxes and restrictions. This is how the idea of “corporate civil rights” began, to protect the railroads from greedy State legislatures.
Eventually, the railroads were forced to take an active part in the federal laws about them, giving them maximum control over their property. This led to them trying to buy profitability with the law, however.
But to this day, Union Pacific, in particular, jealously holds on to its right of way, and will send in a legion of lawyers to protect every square inch of it. And politicians still regularly try to grab its territory, so this is not done frivolously.
Yet it does create oligopoly conditions, and has pretty much frozen the technology in a substandard condition.
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
And this guy calls me “mentally handicapped”?!?
”RR tracks require LOTS of inspection and maintenance, not to speak of scheduling of single track operations. Who’s best to do that? The Post Office?
The private sector can bid for that work.
The state Transportation Department should be required to solicit at least 3 competitive bids, for a maximum 5-year contract.
And this guy calls me “mentally handicapped”?!?
If I ever called you that, I can assure you, I was trying very hard to be polite.
I’m with Rush, when private enterprise battles with Liberals, I always side with private enterprise.
Seize the tracks from a profitable enterprise that provides a much needed service and convert it to an unprofitable use that fulfills no one’s needs.
Yeah, sounds like a fantastic idea.
Thank you, Willie, for coming up with a completely authoritarian and socialistic solution.
The airlines did not build the airways.
Trucking companies do not build the roads.
Shipping companies did not build the waterways.
The railroads in the country provided the capital, acquired the right-of-way and then built the tracks themselves. To confiscate their property and deny them the right to benefit from their investment would be completely against free market economics.
As for competition, the utility company bears responsibility for building their power plant at a location that could not be served by different railroad companies. If they had exercised a little forethought, they could just move their shipping contract to another railroad. There is more than one railroad company operating in Florida after all.
Water transport of bulk cargo is by far the cheapest. The utility should have located by the water and rail.
Somehow having the “state” own the right of ways and the tracks sounds like a good idea, yet with a little more scrutiny you can see that this is a recipe for disaster.
The railroads in the country provided the capital,
Wrong.
Goverment provided land grants not only for the right-of-way, but also up to 20 miles on either side of what was necessary for just the track. The railroads then sold that extra land back to the settlers to raise the capital to build the RR.
But it all started with government donating taxpayer land, free of charge.
What could possibly go wrong?
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