Reregulation?

"Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market."

This was a quotation from the State of the Obama speech that experts say sheds no new light on what the president's plans are. An Associated Press analysis once again savages the accuracy of Obama's statements. You almost wonder if they forgot Bush wasn't the president anymore!

Regulation has become the name of the game. Obama blasts nameless predecessors for deregulating the housing market (when in fact, President Bush's calls for regulatory restraint of the mortgage industry were actually ignored.) We can expect proposals for regulations across the board from new environmental standards to just about everything else. Although sometimes necessary, sweeping implementation of regulation will stifle economic growth and restrict competition.

The intent is to roll back the Reagan Revolution in smaller government and make the federal government more intrusive in just about every field. Gary Howell in an earlier piece explained how proposed railroad regulations will hurt the industry and the economy.

Wait a second, how did deregulation get exclusively associated with Republicans?

Actually a Democrat helped to get the deregulation ball rolling in 1980. At that point railroads were so tightly regulated that profits were impossible and an entire industry hovered on the point of collapse. Congressman Harley Staggers Sr. (D) West Virginia crafted and got passed a the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 that significantly reduced federal burdens and allowed a small revival of the railroads. This did not come in time to save the local rail facilities, but it did prevent the passing of unprofitable lines into the hands of the federal government where they would simply waste taxpayer money instead of private capital.

Congressman Staggers was no conservative and his family are staunch and proud Democrats. However his deregulation act showed that lightening the load of government can help business survive and even thrive. This generation of Democrats could learn a lot from this predecessor.

Opposing more rail regulation keeps our highways clear

As a longtime member and current secretary of the U.S. 50 Association, I am usually focused on state issues that have a detrimental effect on our highway system, and on Route 50 in particular. But all too often it is legislation at the federal level that has unintended negative effects on our road system. One such initiative currently in the works is legislation that would roll back the Staggers Act of 1980, named for Congressman Harley Staggers of Keyser, and reregulate our nation’s rail systems.

In West Virginia, of course, our railroads are particularly important to our ability to transport coal safely and efficiently to energy suppliers across the nation. Ever since they were deregulated, railroads have provided a means of transportation that helps keep coal affordable and ready accessible for energy providers in every part of the United States.

But another, often overlooked, benefit of our rail system is the service it provides in keeping our highways and roads from being even more congested with truck traffic than they already are. If the Staggers Act is repealed or seriously rolled back – as legislation in the last Congress would have done – our roads would be even more congested and damaged by shippers using semi trucks to an even greater degree than they are used today.

As everyone traveling our highways knows, our roads and bridges are deteriorating quickly, and we can hardly meet the needs of pothole repair and general repaving and maintenance as it is. Legislation that would raise the cost of doing business with our railroads would only increase the damage to our roads.

It’s important to compare the efficiency of our railroads with the extra burden that would be placed on our highways if the Staggers Act was repealed. For example, one typical multi-car locomotive does the work of more than 280 semi trucks. It costs $1 million to $3 million per mile to add capacity to rail, as opposed to $10 million or more per mile to add a lane to urban highways.

As the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said in its Freight Bottom Line Report. "Relatively small public investments in the nation's freight railroads can be leveraged into relatively large benfits for the nation's highway infrastructure, highway users and freight shippers.

Furthermore, railroads are there times as energy efficient as trucks. A train can move a ton of freight 423 miles on one gallon of fuel, and are also three times cleaner. Since truck fatality rates are four times higher than train fatality rates, moving freight by rail will also save lives.

Since the Staggers Act was passed in 1980, the freight railway industry has seen drastic, quantifiable improvements, including a 168 percent increase in productivity, an 85 percent increase in rail traffic, and injury rates that have fallen by 68 percent.

For some reason, Sen. Jay Rockefeller has long been seen as an opponent of the railroad industry. But in this case, all West Virginians should hope that he will join many of his colleagues in opposing any effort to roll back the Staggers Act and reregulate our rail system. The railroad industry has been good for West Virginia, and for the coal business. Just as importantly from my point of view, our current system helps keep our highways and roads less congested than they otherwise would be. Let’s keep it that way.