Roughly, a unit train carrying 50 barrel cars of crude and assuming a value of $80 per barrel, transportation charge is roughly 12.50 (although it varies). The total gross return, being transported each freight would be:
50 cars x 75,000 barrels x $12 per barrel x 6 day = 270 mil $
So the fine is the cost of doing business, for 40 billion dollar rail. Day after day, year after year for over a decade. Granted, this is part of what keeps gas prices down. North Dakota's shale, tracked into the west coast.
Good for the tribe, but I really wish the fine was higher as a real deterrent.
The fine was levied June 6, 2024. Per the court record in the article.
But let's talk about the profits.
> As a “conscious wrongdoer,” BNSF “will be stripped of the net profits obtained from its unauthorized interference with another’s property,” Lasnik <the judge> ordered.
> the Tribe has the initial "burden of producing evidence permitting at least a reasonable approximation of the amount of the wrongful gain"
I find it unlikely that they will return the majority of the profits to the Tribe, beyond the fine.
Imagine a 3200 foot stretch of rail way costing you $400 million because you just couldn’t be bothered to live up to your end of a basic agreement.
