From: Seattle Times
Seattle Times business reporter
As oil trains hauling North Dakota crude delay rail transport of grain
to Pacific Northwest ports, the prospect of growing fossil-fuel traffic
has some fearing that such shipping disruptions will become a long-term
problem impeding exports and the regional economy.
A surge in oil trains hauling North Dakota’s energy bonanza is
interfering with grain shipments to Pacific Northwest ports, prompting
fears of a chronic crisis in which railcars carrying fossil fuels crowd
out other products and disrupt exports.
Washington wheat farmers have been luckier than their Upper Midwest
cousins because most can ship their wheat by barge down the Columbia
River.
But those farther from the river, who typically rely on railroads,
are increasingly paying truckers to move their wheat to a barge port.
Farmers and others worry that costs and delays will get worse as more
trains carrying oil — and perhaps coal — clog the region’s rail lines. MORE
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