Washington, D.C.-The Fertilizer Institute on April 24 testified before the Surface Transportation Board at a hearing on the railroads’ common carrier obligation. The hearing was held to discuss a variety of interests, including the cost and safety issues related to the transportation of toxic-by-inhalation (TIH) materials such as anhydrous ammonia; service limitations resulting from a capacity-constrained rail environment; carrier-imposed requirements for infrastructure investments by shippers; and economically motivated service reductions. Bob Felgenhauer, vice president of transportation and distribution for PotashCorp, testified on behalf of TFI and its member companies, expressing concerns with efforts by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) to seek repeal of the railroads’ common carrier obligation to haul anhydrous ammonia. “The rail industry asserts that its liability is just too great to carry commodities like anhydrous ammonia. But, as a common carrier, the rail industry is imbued with a public interest, which by definition is broader than its own self interest,” said Felgenhauer. “Rail transportation of anhydrous ammonia is critical to our food supply, energy policy, clean air, certain industrial production and the national economy in general.” Felgenhauer noted that anhydrous ammonia is the least costly and most effective source of nitrogen fertilizer for American farmers. “Food security is quickly becoming the number one issue around the world,” he said. “There is no substitute for anhydrous ammonia in maintaining our nation’s, or our world’s, food supply, and it is also vital to a variety of industrial applications.” According to TFI, several actions taken by the railroad industry to avoid its common carrier obligation were addressed at the hearing, including excessive rail rates; shifting liability to shippers for accidental releases of anhydrous ammonia during rail transport; and infrastructure investment requirements, such as new tank car investments and the expansion of yard capacity for receivers of anhydrous ammonia. “Since 2004, rail rates for anhydrous ammonia have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. TFI members report that their rail rates have nearly tripled over this time,” said Felgenhauer. “Rail is a much safer and often the only alternative to trucks for the overland transportation of anhydrous ammonia. It keeps this essential commodity off of our nation’s highways, where the potential for accidents is many times greater and much more likely to affect the general population.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain