Posted on 09/23/2014 2:16:10 PM PDT by Ray76
The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills.
[] reports the railroads filed with the federal government show that for the week that ended Aug. 22, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway North Dakotas largest railroad, owned by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett had a backlog of 1,336 rail cars waiting to ship grain and other products. Another railroad, Canadian Pacific, had a backlog of nearly 1,000 cars.
Farmers and agriculture groups say rail operators are clearly favoring the more lucrative transport of oil. Rail shipments of crude oil in North Dakota have surged since 2008, and the state now produces about a million barrels a day. About 60 percent of that oil travels by train from the Bakken oil fields in the western part of the state to faraway oil refiners. There are few pipelines to ship it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I'd vote 'yes' on Keystone pipeline: Warren Buffett
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101460011
BNSF and Canadian Railways have still not moved all of the grain and corn from last year’s harvest and now have another bumper crop to move. Good news if you run a stockyard or pig farm in Iowa, bad news if you have a 1000 acres of corn there.
Mar. 10, 2014
BrownfieldAgNews reports:
The backlog of Canadian grain shipments should be coming to an end fairly soon.
According to Dow Jones Newswires, Canada’s government will require Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. to ship at least a half million tons of grain every week or receive a $100,000 fine each day the companies don’t comply.
Buffett at least believes in growth and is building about a hundred miles of second track through North Dakota and Montana this year to handle the increase. The CEO at Canadian Pacific thinks it’s just a passing phase. His mind doesn’t think of railroads as a growth industry (at least not in this century). Buffett is the better Capitalist because he sees an opportunity and is positioning himself to grab a large share. That is why BNSF is handling as much crude as all the other railroads combined.
Meanwhile, CP has only carried about 80% of last year’s harvest. Their potential revenue is still lying on the ground.
I hope that's sarcasm...
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