(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on February 11, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The strong winter storms hitting the country this winter are sharply cutting stockpiles of coal held by electrical utilities, said Matthew K. Rose, the chairman, president and CEO of BNSF Railway.
Coal is the largest carload commodity for the largest U.S. rail lines, and BNSF carries the lion’s share of coal pulled out of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, a major production area.
Rose told CNBC television Feb. 11 that a previously large overhang of onsite stockpiles by coal-burning power plants had been a concern for train traffic leading into 2010, but with the intense winter storms sweeping the nation “that is truly being wiped out.”
The storms have significantly increased heating demand, various industry sources say, while making it harder for replacement trainloads to reach utilities. Much of the eastern United States is digging out from a Feb. 10 blizzard, the second unusually heavy winter storm in the region in five days.
Rose said the winter weather is also hitting BNSF’s home base of Fort Worth, Texas. He said shareholders arriving at company headquarters for the Feb. 11 morning meeting to approve BNSF’s purchase by Berkshire Hathaway are “sliding into Fort Worth – it’s snowing here.”