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>From the Surface Transportation Board, Washington, D.C.
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Surface Transportation Board Chairman Roger Nober today announced that the
STB has issued its unanimous decision in the maximum railroad rate case
brought before the agency by the Public Service Company of Colorado, doing
business as Xcel Energy ("Xcel"), against The Burlington Northern and Santa
Fe Railway Company ("BNSF"). In today's decision, the STB found that Xcel
had demonstrated that the challenged rates are unreasonably high under the
agency's "stand-alone cost" (SAC) test. The STB ordered BNSF to reduce the
challenged rates and to pay reparations to Xcel. This decision was in
compliance with the statutory deadline in this case.
A copy of today's decision in the case entitled Public Service Company of
Colorado d/b/a/ Xcel Energy v. The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway
Company, STB Docket No. 42057, is available for viewing and downloading via
the agency's Web site at http://www.stb.dot.gov. Printed copies also are
available for a fee by contacting ASAP Document Solutions, 9332 Annapolis
Rd., Suite 103, Lanham, MD 20706, telephone (301) 577-2600, or via
asapmd@xxxxxxxxxxxx A fact sheet is attached.
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ATTACHMENT
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ATTACHMENT
Public Service Company of Colorado d/b/a Xcel Energy v.The Burlington
Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company, STB Docket No. 42057
On December 20, 2000, the Public Service Company of Colorado, doing
business as Xcel Energy ("Xcel"), filed a complaint challenging the
reasonableness of the rates charged by The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe
Railway Company ("BNSF") for the transportation of coal from origins in the
Powder River Basin of Wyoming to Xcel's Pawnee Steam Electric Generating
Station near Brush, Colorado. Xcel asked the STB to prescribe the maximum
reasonable rates that BNSF may charge for this traffic.
The STB decision is based on the evidence filed by the parties and informed
by an oral argument session, held on March 18, 2004, that allowed the
parties to present their positions and to respond to agency questions in a
public forum.
The STB's "stand-alone cost" ("SAC") test seeks to determine the lowest
cost at which a hypothetical, efficient, "stand-alone railroad" ("SARR")
could provide the transportation service needed by a complaining shipper.
Under the SAC test, the complaining shipper designs a hypothetical railroad
specifically tailored to serve its needs and the needs of other traffic it
designates. The costs of building and operating such an efficient SARR are
then compared to the revenues that such a system could expect to earn. If,
as in this case, the shipper demonstrates that the SARR would earn more
than necessary to cover all of its costs (including a reasonable return on
investment), the shipper is entitled to rate relief.
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