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<br />But a study completed lest year by the Virginia Center for <br />Coal and Bnergy Research in Blacksburg, Virginia, found that the <br />state's utilities continue to buy much of their coal from West <br />Virginia and eastern Kentucky because of more Favorable rail <br />rates than are obtainable from Virginia mines. (See last attachment <br />for more details). <br />3. In the West, where for years the fabulous coal deposits <br />of the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana could be reached <br />by only one railroad, the Burlington Northern, rates increased <br />rapidly from the $7 to $9 a ton range to the high $20s -- $28 per <br />ton in one example -- until another railroad managed to break the <br />monopoly. <br />One of the worst cases involved a Texas utility, San Antonio <br />City Public Service, and the Burlington Northern. The dispute over <br />excessive rates was in and out of the Interstate Commerce Commission <br />starting in 1975, well before passage of the Staggers Rail Act of <br />1980. Late last year, after long delays, the ICC directed a <br />settlement in which the BN, which originated the coal movement in <br />Wyoming, end the Southern Pacific which made the final delivery, <br />will pay San Antonio $111.5 million. <br />And, in an area where utilities were talking about abandoning <br />coal as a fuel, San Antonio is now considering using coal as the <br />fuel for the next generating unit it builds. <br /> <br />In hearings and propaganda efforts the past two years, the <br />railroads have made a big thing about opposition to our legislation <br />from the American Bar Association and the Federal Trade Commission. <br />