One day after Warren Buffett made his biggest deal ever – the $26.3 billion acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. – the reactions range from the predictably bullish analysts’ sentiment about the rail industry to some interesting questions about how “green” railroads really are.

In Montana, politicians are already lobbying Buffett and Congress to lower shipping rates, which rose during the global economic boom as rail cars filled up with commodities that were being shipped across the U.S and to China.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who is a farmer himself, said he had spoken to Buffett and Matthew Rose, Burlington Northern’s CEO on Tuesday, according to The Missoulian, a Montana newspaper. “I said to both of them I look forward to working with both in the future to improve service and shipping costs for our farmers, our miners and our merchants,” Schweitzer said.”

Montana is a vital state for Burlington Northern. It is where the vast majority of the coal that Burlington Northern ships is mined. Likewise, Burlington Northern has a monopoly on rail traffic o