Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House to reauthorize Amtrak and establish high-speed rail corridors to relieve congestion.

Money wise, the bill would more than double federal subsidies to Amtrak -- to some $2.86 billion annually for five years versus the current $1.2 billion annual Amtrak subsidy.

The bill is titled, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. It has not yet been assigned a bill number.

Coal is black gold -- not only in its ability to advance America’s energy independence, but in the thousands of secure railroad jobs provided in transporting our abundance of low-sulfur coal to electric utilities.

UTU Iowa Legislative Director Pat Hendricks was quick to point this out recently to readers of the Des Moines Register, after the newspaper ran an opinion piece that failed to recognize that coal "is our most affordable and reliable source" of electricity.