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<br />HIGH TRANSPORTATION COST OF WESTERN COAL HARMS THfi INDUSTRY <br />In March of 1986, a draft report prepared by the Office of <br />Minerals Policy Analysis of the Interior Departments's Aureau of <br />Land Management, the agency that oversees the Federal Coal Management <br />Program, became public. <br />Its matter-of-fact title -- "The Relationship Between Coal <br />Transportation Competition and the Federal Coal Program" -- gave <br />no hint that here was a product that shows the damage that can be <br />done to an industry (coal) by a railroad that provides the only <br />viable freight hauling service and thus can exact monopoly pricing. <br />What did the trade press say? -- <br />-- "(It) confirms repeated claims by the coal industry <br />that the lack of transportation alternatives in the West has <br />hurt the industry and the government's coal leasing program." <br />-- Inside Energy with Public Lands <br />-- "Coal-hauling western railroads exercised monopoly <br />power in the past and may do so again in the future, according <br />to (the study) .'Monopolistic, higher-then-competitive <br />transportation rates prevailed for (Powder River Basin) coal <br />shipments before introduction of competition ."' -- The <br />Energy Daily. <br />-- "Railroad competition in the Powder River Basin (of <br />Wyoming) has cut delivered coal prices as much as $7 a ton. <br />So says a Department of Interior study on the effects of <br />competition ." -- Coal Outlook <br />There are other news reports published at the time the draft <br />report became available. It was later reported, however, that <br />the Department of Justice had been involved in suppressing the <br />report, which has never been officially released by Interior. It <br />doesn't have to be. Anyone following the problem knows it is true. <br />### <br />