News

2007 …
ARPA Pool Train Agreement

Pool Train Sharing with Cargill

February 2008 …
WFA welcomes new Class C member Dairyland Power Cooperative.

April 2008 …
WFA welcomes new Class C member Madison Gas and Electric.

Dry Fork Mine achieves 5 years without a lost time accident.

June 2008 …
From The Congress of Racial Equality

For Immediate Release: June 4, 2008
Contacts: Brian McLaughlin, CORE: (718) 708-3509

De Facto “War On The Poor” Being Waged By Environmental Extremists

Congress of Racial Equality Charges That Polar Bear Listing, Climate Change Schemes Are Disproportionately “Enslaving” Low-Income Families

Anchorage, AK (June 4, 2008) – Environmental extremists in Alaska and across the Lower 48 are waging a de facto “war on the poor” through policies such as the threatened species listing of the polar bear and climate change proposals like the Lieberman-Warner-Boxer legislation, according to Roy Innis, Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality.

"Those who are pushing these extremist policies are trying to hamstring Alaska’s and America’s ability to produce American energy,” Innis said in a keynote address to the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Resource Development Council of Alaska. “That will raise the price of energy and the basic cost of living. And that amounts to de facto war on the poor.”

Innis explained that that higher energy prices disproportionately impact the poor. “The average medium income family in America devotes about a nickel on the dollar to energy costs,” he said. “The average low-income family devotes 20 cents on the dollar to energy cost. Truly poor families must spend up to 50 cents on the dollar. And, here in Alaska where we rely so much on diesel fuel for electricity, the burden is probably even higher for many native Alaskan families.”

"In Colorado, a recent study found that homeless families with children cited high energy bills as one of the two main reasons they became homeless," he said.

Low-income families and working poor will be the “biggest losers” from both the polar bear listing under the Endangered Species Act and climate change legislation such as Lieberman-Warner in Congress.

“There are seven deadly sins against the poor inherent in the polar bear listing,” Innis explained.

It is based on faulty data and highly speculative science.
It will hurt the polar bear as a species, because it will tie up locally led polar bear conservation efforts into the straightjacket of the highly inflexible Endangered Species Act.
It will deal a body blow to consumers because of it will constrict energy supply and raise prices on virtually everything that we buy.
It will deal a body blow to our economy because of the flood of destructive lawsuits it will unleash.
It will visit the worst economic harm upon the low-income families and further handcuff the poor into the bondage of poverty.
It will put environmental groups and radical lawyers in charge of America’s climate change policy instead of our duly elected political representatives.
It will weaken America by limiting our ability to provide American energy to Americans. That makes us more dependent on foreign nations that are downright hostile to our nation and who give our petro-dollars to terrorists who target and kill Americans.”

Innis also said the Lieberman-Warner-Boxer climate change bill is “all pain for no climate gain.”

“This bill will raise gasoline and diesel prices further, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). It amounts to the largest tax increase in U.S. history at $1 trillion, also according to the CBO. It will comprise the largest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal. It is the biggest pork bill ever contemplated with trillions of dollars in giveaways. And, those giveaways will be paid by families and workers in the form of lost jobs, higher gas, power and heating bills, and more expensive consumer goods,: he said.

“Finally, it will not result in a detectable impact on the climate. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, by 2050 Lieberman-Warner-Boxer would only lower global CO2 concentrations by less than 1.4% without additional international action. That is barely measurable,” he said.

“Too many government leaders have bought into the predictions of environmental Armageddon that we hear from radical environmental groups,” he said. “Instead, our government leaders need the same moral courage we had in the 1960s. We cannot allow environmental radicals to pass economic Jim Crow laws on their way to ending the American dream.

November 2008 …
Long time Western Fuels employee, Rodney "Rod" Wolf, passed away on November 1st. Services were held in Gillette, WY on November 4th. See Gillette News. Rod will be missed by everyone who knew him.

February 2009 …

On February 18, 2009 the Surface Transportation Board issued the following:

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD ORDERS $345 MILLION IN RATE RELIEF &
DAMAGES FOR A CAPTIVE UTILITY PLANT

The Surface Transportation Board issued a decision today granting an estimated $345
million in reparations and rate reductions from the BNSF Railway (BNSF) to Western Fuels
Association, Inc. and Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (collectively, "the Utilities").
The Utilities had challenged the railroad transportation rates charged by BNSF to haul 8
million tons of coal each year from mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin to their
electric-generating plant in Moba Junction, WY. The utility plant is captive to BNSF and
provides electricity into grids serving consumers in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana,
Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
In today's decision, the Board found the transportation rates BNSF charged the Utilities—
which are now roughly six times the variable cost of providing service—to be unlawfully
high. BNSF was ordered to lower its transportation rates by approximately 60%, as the
Board's stand-alone cost (SAC) test demonstrated that in 2009 the maximum lawful rate for
this traffic cannot exceed a revenue-to-variable cost (R/VC) ratio of 240%. This results in
the single largest award to a captive shipper by the Board. BNSF is obligated to promptly
reimburse the Utilities for approximately $100 million in overcharges from 2004 through
2008. The exact amount of damages due the Utilities depends upon the volume of coal
transported from the various PRB mines between 2004 and 2008. Following its usual
practice, the Board instructed the parties to confer and resolve the precise amount of
damages due the Utilities, and bring any disputes to the Board's attention for resolution. In
addition, BNSF must also immediately lower its current transportation rates to the R/VC
levels prescribed in this decision, and keep the rates below the prescribed level through
2024.
In announcing today's decision, Board Chairman Charles D. Nottingham said,
"Today's unanimous and bipartisan decision demonstrates the Board's commitment
to delivering strong regulatory oversight over the freight rail market when necessary
to protect captive shippers from monopoly pricing. The ultimate beneficiaries of this
decision are consumers in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New
Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming who are served by this captive
electric utility plant. Those customers have been bearing the burden of these
unreasonably high transportation rates in their monthly electric bills, a burden they
should no longer be forced to bear."

A PDF file of the full decision can be found at STB Decision.