LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN – March 24, 2005

The railroad fuel surcharges bill was amended this morning and given a unanimous Do Pass recommendation from the Senate Transportation Committee.  Thanks to Senators Tom Trenbeath, Cavalier; Duane Espegard, Grand Forks; Duane Mutch, Larimore; Dave Nething, Jamestown; Dennis Bercier, Belcourt; John Warner, Ryder; and also Representatives Mike Brandenburg, Edgeley who is prime sponsor and Representative Robin Weisz, Hurdsfield, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee.  The bill now says that a railroad is prohibited from assessing a fuel surcharge on a shipment of commodities originating in this state if the surcharge exceeds the approximate increased cost of the fuel above what the fuel cost when zero surcharge was last assessed.  This gets to the real nut of the problem – fuel costs going up a little bit, but the railroad raising the surcharge a whole lot, in some cases to seven times the increased cost.

The amendments and bill as amended could be on the Senate floor as early as tomorrow, Good Friday March 25, or it could go into next week.  But contact with your State Senators in support of this legislation is needed now and continuing until the bill is finally acted upon.   

The railroads have been saying that the state has no jurisdiction in this matter, that it is pre-empted by federal law.  Who knows?  That might turn out to be true in the end.  Or maybe not.   But there is an old saying about any new law sticking and/or being constitutional until challenged and proven otherwise.  “You gotta know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em.”  This isn’t the time for the state to fold’em.  Grain Dealers’ testimony at both House and Senate hearings on this bill have included the following statement: “Let’s pass this; let’s enact this; and then if a railroad wants to ignore a law in a state that contributes so handsomely to its bottom line, that’s THEIR public policy and public relations problem.”

Funding for the railroad rate complaint is in HB 1008, the PSC’s budget.  This is currently in the hands of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  Continued contact with those Senators will encourage them to do the right thing and appropriate the money to formally challenge at the Surface Transportation Board the exorbitant rates charged on some North Dakota crops, including its largest, wheat.