News Release

Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Georgia Power Sign Long-Term Contract for PRB Coal Delivery

FORT WORTH, Texas, May 21, 2002:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) and Georgia Power Company today announced that BNSF has been awarded a long-term contract to deliver Powder River Basin (PRB) coal to Georgia Power’s Plant Robert W. Scherer near Juliette, Ga., about 40 miles north of Macon.

The contract term begins January 1, 2004, and provides BNSF the exclusive opportunity to deliver low-sulphur PRB coal from Wyoming and Montana to Memphis. At Memphis, Norfolk Southern Railway, under a separate contract with Georgia Power, will move the coal to Plant Scherer. In 2004, Plant Scherer will have the ability to utilize Eastern or Western fuel on all four of its generating units. At that time, Plant Scherer will have the potential to burn 12 to 14 million tons of PRB coal annually.

“The Scherer contract award represents an important expansion of BNSF's coal franchise and builds on a close working relationship we have established over the past eight years with several of the operating companies of Southern,” said Matthew K. Rose, BNSF Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We appreciate their confidence in BNSF to continue to provide reliable transportation for many years to come.”

Plant Scherer is jointly owned by Georgia Power; City of Dalton, Ga.; Florida Power & Light Company; Gulf Power Company; JEA (formerly known as Jacksonville Electric Authority); Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia; and Oglethorpe Power Corporation. Georgia Power is one of five operating companies of Southern Company. In the past, BNSF has handled coal on a limited basis to Plant Scherer.

BNSF currently provides the James H. Miller Generating Station of Alabama Power Company, another Southern operating company, about 12 million tons of PRB coal annually under a long-term contract.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (NYSE:BNI), through its BNSF subsidiary, operates one of the largest railroad networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a wide variety of customer transactions at www.bnsf.com. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

Southern Company is one of the largest generators of electricity in the United States. The Southern system generates more than 34,000 megawatts; burns approximately 65 million tons of coal annually, and is one of the largest consumers of PRB coal.

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000