(The Associated Press circulated the following on May 17.)
OMAHA, Neb. — The Omaha Public Power District sued Union Pacific Corp. this week, joining at least two other utilities that have taken the nation’s largest railroad to court because of coal delivery problems.
The OPPD lawsuit, filed in Douglas County District Court, seeks more than $7 million in damages because the utility says Union Pacific has failed to live up to its contract since spring of 2005.
That timeframe coincides with when two derailments on the main line leading out of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin in May 2005 revealed that accumulated coal dust in the rail bed made the line unstable. Repairs disrupted traffic and slowed deliveries for months.
The Omaha-based railroad responded to those problems on the main coal line by establishing an embargo on all new coal contracts in July 2005. Union Pacific just lifted its embargo in March, signaling that the main coal line is in much better shape.
Union Pacific set company records for the amount of coal it hauled again last year, but its utility customers haven’t always been satisfied.
OPPD spokesman Mike Jones said the utility was reluctant to file the lawsuit, but decided it was necessary.
Union Pacific officials did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday.
Entergy Corp. sued Union Pacific in April 2006 over coal delivery problems. Entergy says it lost “tens of millions of dollars.”
Entergy claims that when it didn’t receive the coal Union Pacific promised to deliver, it had to buy fuel on the open market at much higher prices
We Energies, a subsidary of Wisconsin Energy, filed a federal lawsuit in April 2006, accusing Union Pacific of overcharging for coal deliveries to Wisconsin and Michigan and failing to deliver all the coal it promised.
We Energies said in its lawsuit that Union Pacific failed to deliver nearly 700,000 tons of coal from 2003 to 2005.
Union Pacific operates 32,400 miles of track in 23 states from the Midwest to the West and Gulf coasts.