(The Associated Press circulated the following on June 28, 2010.)
NEW YORK — Railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe spent $1.3 million lobbying the federal government in the first quarter, according to a disclosure report.
That’s down from about $1.5 million spent in the fourth quarter and $1.4 million in the first quarter of last year.
In the first quarter, Burlington Northern lobbied the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the Department of Transportation on the expansion of freight rail infrastructure spending and the extension and modification of a railroad tax maintenance credit.
It also lobbied on environmental issues like greenhouse gas and locomotive emissions, crossing safety, antitrust classifications, high speed passenger rail and positive train control. Positive train control, or PTC, is the technology that all freight railroads must install by 2015 in response to the deadly crash of a commuter train and a Union Pacific train in California over a year ago.
The nation’s second-largest railroad was taken private in February when Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway completed the acquisition of shares it didn’t already own. The deal was valued at about $26.7 billion.