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<div><font face="Verdana">Wall Street Journal Aug. 7, 2015 5:29
p.m. ET</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana">LOGISTICS REPORT</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><b>Freight Rail Traffic Tumbles on Falling
Coal, Oil Demand<br>
</b>Carloads carrying energy products declined at a double-digit rate
in July, the Association of American Railroads says</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"
size="-1"
>http://www.wsj.com/articles/freight-rail-traffic-tumbles-on-falling-<span
></span>coal-oil-demand-1438982945</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana">By BRIAN BASKIN AND ALISON
SIDER</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana">Excerpt: first 4 paragraphs</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana">Rail traffic fell in July from a year ago as
an increase in container volumes couldn't offset a steep decline in
oil and coal shipments, the Association of American Railroads said in
its monthly report Friday.</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br>
The number of carloads carrying oil and petroleum products dropped
13.6% from a year ago to 67,909 last month, while coal volumes sank
12.5%. Container shipments rose 3.8% to 1.2 million. Traffic overall
fell 1.8% to 2.7 million, the association said.</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana">Oil-train shipments have tumbled this year,
hurt by plunging prices for crude and concerns about the safety of
transporting petroleum by rail. That, plus declining demand for coal
from power plants and overseas buyers, has hit railroad operators'
earnings. Norfolk Southern Corp. , CSX Corp. and Union Pacific Corp.
are among the major operators to attribute declining revenue to waning
energy-related business.</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana">"Railroads are overexposed, relative to
the economy in general, to the energy sector," analysts with the AAR
said in the traffic report.</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Times"
color="#535353"
>http://www.wsj.com/articles/freight-rail-traffic-tumbles-on-falling-<span
></span>coal-oil-demand-1438982945</font><br>
<font face="Times" color="#262626"></font></div>
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<div><font face="Geneva"
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>
<div><font face="Geneva" color="#000000">"Contrary to the
expectation that surviving trees have weathered severe drought, the
hydraulic deterioration demonstrated here reveals that surviving
regions of these forests are actually more vulnerable to future
droughts due to accumulated xylem damage. As the most widespread tree
species in North America, increasing vulnerability to drought in these
forests has important ramifications for ecosystem stability,
biodiversity, and ecosystem carbon balance."</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" color="#000000">William L. R. Anderegg et al.
Drought's legacy: multiyear hydraulic deterioration underlies
widespread aspen forest die-off and portends increased future
risk. <i> Global Change Biology</i> (2013) 19, 1188-1196, doi:
10.1111/gcb.12100</font></div>
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