Before you roll your eyes thinking this is another ploy by environmentalists to poke Big Coal in the eye, consider this; Suppressing coal dust from loaded trains is a matter of national security.
In 2005, back-to-back derailments in the southern Powder River Basin temporarily cut more than 20 million tons of expected deliveries, throwing utilities into a panic as their stockpiles shrank to a little more than a week’s supply in some cases.