The following is from Reuters news service. I’ll put it down verbatim, without comment. I am curious to see what y’all make of it…
allen
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UPDATE 3-U.S. transport official warns of brown-out risk
Mon Jul 18, 2005 07:32 PM ET
(Adds details on utilities)
By Daniel Sorid
SAN FRANCISCO, July 18 (Reuters) - A top U.S. transportation official warned on Monday that coal shortages caused by damage to railroad tracks in the primary U.S. coal-mining region could trigger electrical brown-outs this summer in pockets of the country.
In an interview, the chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, Roger Nober, said brown-outs – a potentially disruptive dip in electrical voltage on the grid – were a possibility as the nation heads into a period of peak electricity consumption.
“There is the possibility, of course, that individual utilities who were low on stockpiles for whatever reason may find themselves short now,” he said. “We want to avoid – if at all possible – utilities running out of coal and having to brown-out.”
A combination of heavy precipitation and built-up coal dust has been blamed for May’s two derailments on a line jointly operated by Union Pacific (UNP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana.
The fall-out from the derailments has been widespread. Utilities have begun reporting shortages of the raw material for their coal-fired power plants, and Wall Street has begun punishing coal producers for profit shortfalls caused by the disruption.
Coal accounts for more than half of all the power generation in the United States, experts say, with much of it coming from the basin. The peak season for electricity consumption is typically from June through S