Posted on 08/26/2014 8:57:37 AM PDT by reaganaut1
FARGO, N.D. — 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.
The backlog is only going to get worse, farmers said, as they prepared this week for what is expected to be a record crop of wheat and soybeans.
“If we can’t get this stuff out soon, a lot of it is simply going to go on the ground and rot,” said Bill Hejl, who grows soybeans, wheat and sugar beets in the town of Casselton, about 20 miles west of here.
Although the energy boom in North Dakota has led to a 2.8 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in the nation, the downside has been harder times for farmers who have long been mainstays of the state’s economy. Agriculture was North Dakota’s No. 1 industry for decades, representing a quarter of its economic base, but recent statistics show that oil and gas have become the biggest contributors to the state’s gross domestic product.
Railroads have long been the backbone of North Dakota’s transportation system and the most dependable way for farmers to move crops — to ports in Portland, Ore., Seattle and Vancouver, from which the bulk of the grain is shipped across the Pacific to Asia; and to East Coast ports like Albany, from which it is shipped to Europe.
But reports the railroads filed with the federal government show that for the week that ended Aug. 22, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway — North Dakota’s largest railroad, owned by the billionaire Warren E. Buffett — had a backlog of 1,336 rail cars
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Is Buffet speculating in grain? He’d get a twofer!
Gee whiz!!! Who’d have ever thought of transporting several millions of gallons of oil by PIPELINE? What a brilliant idea you have come up with, sir.
I understand most pipeline are UNDER the ground and there is much less chance of train wrecks. Amazing, isn’t it?
Seriously, is there anyone in charge that has a single ounce of working brains? The world wonders.
Gee no pipeline for oil or natural gas, Starve or Freeze Libs! Actions consequences! And as Ron White says, ‘you can’t fix stupid’!
Now, who is behind the railroads and blocking the pipeline? Follow the money . . .
I know! Build a pipeline to transport grain! /s
The trans-Alaska pipeline has been highly successful since it was completed. Planned in the early 60’s the firs oils was pumped in June 1977. We have become a country that no longer builds on success.
They’ve got a big one on the drawing board from ND to Superior Ws. The company is chomping at the bit to start but of course the bureaucrats are being bureaucrats.
Steyer and Buffett.
The NYT laments it’s Commie narrative while other Liberals and Government create the problem.
You cannot fix the utter insanity of Liberalism.
A backlog of 1300 cars is only about 10-20 trains of grain. Some coal trains regularly run 100 cars. The problem is loading/unloading and getting the empties back to the right place.
That's why I went to work for the railroad. Working for a company that has managed to stay alive for the last 150 years, and still keeps turning a profit, and paying a dividend, by sticking to “old school” business principles, is pretty hard to beat.
I’m guessing he is. If you traced all of the strings to this puppet show it would most likely lead back to him.
A pipeline to transport grain may not be as unfathomable as seems on the face of things. With the right coatings and mechanics it could work. Add some processing and we could get fresh corn flakes from a spigot.
Atlas Shrugged gets less fictional every day....
This sounds like a chapter out of “Atlas Shrugged”!
yes it does
Michele Obama’s grapefruit special is coming! lol
This is the reason for the backlog. Like lumber cars, they do not pick up 100 cars all at the same place. They may pick up four from one grain elevator, ten from the next, 18 from the next. These all get consolidated into one train. Its like the milk run. Then they may go to a gate way point like Minneapolis and split off from there.
This is why the railroads like oil and coal trains. All 100 cars start at the same place and go to the same place. It is a very efficient use of their equipment and train crews.
If only there were other ways to move the oil...you know, like pipelines or other things...
We seemed to have a similar problem in Canada’s grain belt last winter. The train companies (CN, CP) said that a lot of the backlog was due to issues caused by the unusually cold winter, but many suspected that they were also preferentially moving oil rather than grain. The Canadian government gave them their marching orders, with possible fines for encouragement, to get the grain moving. IIRC, the difficulty in moving grain was actually starting to hurt our reputation as an international supplier of grain, with some customers saying they would have to look elsewhere.
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