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Warren Buffett's Massive Railroad Lobby
Muckety ^ | May 5, 2014 | Laurie Bennett

Posted on 11/19/2014 8:07:04 AM PST by upbeat5

What do train whistles and Warren Buffett have in common?

If you answered old-fashioned charm, you’re wrong.

The Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based think tank, calls the avuncular billionaire “the man behind the exploding trains.”

Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns Union Tank Car Company, North America’s largest leaser of tank cars. Berkshire also owns BNSF Railway Company, which moves many of those cars.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.muckety.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: berkshirehathaway; buffett; energy; keystone; keystonexl; oil; opec; override; rail; railroad; veto; warren; warrenbuffett
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Good Organization Chart and info at this sight. I posted this in light of the Keystone Pipeline bill failing by 1 vote in the Senate. I don't know Warren Buffett's position on the Keystone Pipeline (I did find one article where he thought it was good for the country). However, he's making lots of money from the shipment of Canadian Shale crude via his railroad interests. This article is a few months old, but thought it was worth posting.
1 posted on 11/19/2014 8:07:04 AM PST by upbeat5
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To: upbeat5

Well, he lobbied with Obama and won. It’s a billion dollar a year windfall to his company transporting oil from Canada to the South. It’s all about lobbyists. Obama has more lobbyists than any other president.


2 posted on 11/19/2014 8:13:42 AM PST by realcleanguy
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To: upbeat5

This has been discussed on FR, for several years. We knew what old Warren was up to, with the purchase of his railcar fleet...no way in heck KPXL would get passed with Uncle Warren betting against it :(


3 posted on 11/19/2014 8:16:40 AM PST by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: GeronL

Willie Green Memorial Ping.


4 posted on 11/19/2014 8:17:56 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Nachum; thackney

Ping.


5 posted on 11/19/2014 8:18:38 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: upbeat5

“What do train whistles and Warren Buffet have in common?”

A bunch of hot air and shrill noises come out of their holes?


6 posted on 11/19/2014 8:21:43 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Army Air Corps

Nearly all of the oil tank cars are owned/leased by oil companies. The railroad is hired to move them.

In order to help convince those using the older design (less safe) tank cars, BNSF (and others) has added a surcharge to cover the risk.

BNSF to add surcharge to older tank cars
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3219681/posts
October 24, 2014

BNSF Railway Co. plans to apply a $1,000 surcharge for each older tank car that hauls oil, as the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. encourages shippers to scrap the puncture-prone cars.

The charge, which will take effect Jan. 1, will add about $1.50 per barrel to the cost of shipping oil across the country.


7 posted on 11/19/2014 8:22:40 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: thackney

Closer to $2/bbl on the older asphalt-capable cars.


8 posted on 11/19/2014 8:27:44 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: upbeat5

Key$tone........................


9 posted on 11/19/2014 8:28:06 AM PST by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: upbeat5

Before he was the man behind the exploding trains, he was the man behind the exploding Mortgage Backed Securities.

His firm, Moody’s, was rating MBS’s that were loaded with mortgages made to illegal immigrant strawberry pickers making $25,000/year as AAA investment grade securities.

This made it possible for pension plans, churches, and other non-profits to buy the toxic assets.

When they blew up, and Goldman was holding the bag, he then came along and bought their stock for peanuts to save them from going under.

He should be swinging from a lamppost.


10 posted on 11/19/2014 8:28:20 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

And guess who owns a company that builds the newer, stronger tank cars?


11 posted on 11/19/2014 8:31:41 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: upbeat5

Follow the money.


12 posted on 11/19/2014 8:37:31 AM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Nothing is sometimes the right thing to do, and always a wise thing to say.)
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To: thackney

Another, under reported aspect is that the oil trains have caused a near doubling of turn around days for rail cars.

Before this development, I could move cars from Superior, Wisconsin to Houston, drain the cars and return them for another lifting in 30 days.

Today, that time element is close to 60 days. If my freight rate (not including the car cost) was $10/bbl, it’s now $20.

I can’t imagine what the grain haulers are doing about this...


13 posted on 11/19/2014 8:38:04 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: realcleanguy

Actually it is about payoffs in real money

We don’r know how much Obama as amassed in off shore banks


14 posted on 11/19/2014 8:43:34 AM PST by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers

Why would Warren Buffet care where the choo choo go?

I don’t know, Mongo only pawn in game of life.


15 posted on 11/19/2014 8:46:02 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: upbeat5

T. Boon Pickens sides with Buffett boon hates pipe lines.


16 posted on 11/19/2014 8:50:54 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: RinaseaofDs

” Before he was the man behind the exploding trains, he was the man behind the exploding Mortgage Backed Securities.

His firm, Moody’s, was rating MBS’s that were loaded with mortgages made to illegal immigrant strawberry pickers making $25,000/year as AAA investment grade securities.”

Buffett is one of the worst sleaseballs in America.


17 posted on 11/19/2014 9:04:41 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens.)
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To: Vaduz
T. Boon Pickens sides with Buffett boon hates pipe lines.

Where did you find that claim?

'OPEC obsolete' if Keystone pipeline OK'd: Pickens
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101098969#.

The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. would make "OPEC obsolete," billionaire energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens told CNBC on Wednesday.

- - - - - - -

Approve the Keystone pipeline already: Pickens
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101381366

The U.S. government has taken way too much time on whether to approve the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, T. Boone Pickens, CEO of BP Capital Management, told CNBC on Friday.

"We've been sitting here with this on the table since September of 2008. Damn near six years," Pickens complained in a phone interview on "Street Signs." "Why can't this government make a decision in a reasonable amount of time and move forward?"

- - - - - - -

Statement from T. Boone Pickens on U.S. Senate’s failure to act on Keystone Pipeline

http://www.pickensplan.com/
Nov 18 2014

I was disappointed to learn that the U.S. Senate once again has put politics ahead of America’s energy security by blocking the bill to build the Keystone XL Pipeline....

With the Keystone Pipeline we have the opportunity to further reduce our reliance on Middle East Oil. We would be much better off negotiating with the Canadians than with OPEC.

18 posted on 11/19/2014 9:06:44 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: thackney

Have you look at his investments?.


19 posted on 11/19/2014 9:17:24 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Without a doubt.

Buffett is the exact embodiment of the vulture capitalist. The robber baron.

You buy enough newspapers, however, and its amazing the hagiography you can earn.

This is why Bezos owns a newspaper. It makes him look like a humanitarian - even if it runs at a loss, he moved to save a dinosaur relic of the left. He’s untouchable. He could make drones from the ground up bones of aborted babies, and use their skin to cover the fuselage, and there’s no way he would get a word written about it anywhere. He could kill Barbara Streisand with his bare hands in Times Square. No problem.


20 posted on 11/19/2014 9:48:19 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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