Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States and Interstate Commerce Commission

Each of these three petitions seeks review of an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission setting the rate which Union Pacific Railroad Company and Utah Railway Company may charge Nevada Power Company for transporting bituminous coal from Hiawatha, Utah to Moapa, Nevada. Jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 2321(a) and § 2342, as amended. Nevada Power maintains a coal- burning station at Moapa, Nevada and purchases coal at two mines located near Hiawatha, Utah. Utah Railway transports the coal purchased by Nevada Power to Provo, Utah. Union Pacific thereafter transports the coal from Provo, Utah, to Moapa, Nevada. On August 29, 1978, Union Pacific and Utah Railway, acting pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 10702, filed with the Commission schedules which proposed a rate of $9.21 per ton for the movement of Nevada Power's coal from Hiawatha, Utah to Moapa, Nevada, subject to a minimum annual volume requirement of 350,000 tons. The railroads simultaneously filed a ""fall-back"" rate of $10.41 per ton for annual volumes between 150,000 and 350,000 tons. Nevada Power filed a protest in which it asked the Commission to suspend and investigate these rates. In a decision dated September 29, 1978, the Commission ordered an investigation into the rates but declined to suspend them during the investigation. Thus, the rates proposed by the railroads went into effect on October 1, 1978.