Colorado Springs, Colorado (Platts)--26Apr2011/534 pm EDT/2134 GMT

Freight railroads and the utility industry rarely see eye to eye when it comes to transportation rates, but they are in lockstep when it comes to environmental regulations that would affect coal-fired power plants.

"The freight railroads are standing shoulder to shoulder with your lobbyists, trying to fight some of the more pernicious rules," John Wetzel, vice president for congressional affairs with the Association of American Railroads said Tuesday in a speech to coal and utility officials at the National Coal Transportation Association conference in Colorado Springs.

The AAR is working with lobbying groups for utilities, the coal industry and rural electric cooperatives to fight air-quality rules that the US Environmental Protection Agency is currently considering.

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Among the proposed, draft and final rules the EPA is considering are those that would limit utility and industrial boiler emissions, more strictly enforce sulfur dioxide output and regulate coal ash power plant waste.

Coal is big business for railroads, accounting for nearly a quarter of the industry's annual revenue. Railroads are also important for the coal industry, which ships more than 70% of its tonnage by rail.

The railroad lobbying group is working with the new Republican majority in the US House of Representatives to bat down what are seen as the most threatening air-quality rules, as Wetzel waits to "see what opportunities arise later in this Congress."

--Peter Gartrell, peter_gartrell@platts.com