Opposition to the DM&E coal trains continues

The New Ulm Journal has published a letter about the DM&E by Rochester City Council President Dennhis Hanson. It can be read in its entirety here and on A Bluestem Prairie. In the letter Hanson notes that Rochester is not the only city that opposes the DM&E expansion project as it is currently conceived. He writes:

On May 11, 2006, citizens of Brookings, South Dakota, referred their city council’s agreement with the railroad to a vote of the people this November. The action suspended the agreement.

Rochester and Brookings combined account for almost 50% of all people who live in the 56 towns along the proposed coal route.

In Pierre, South Dakota, residents previously collected over 5,000 signatures in petitioning for a bypass and now have started a movement to cancel their city council’s agreement with the DM & E.

Add to this group the majority of the citizens and city council of Mankato. Yes, the City of Mankato has been both ways on this issue, first supporting, then rejecting, then (reluctantly) supporting it again. Their seeming wishy-washiness has to do with how the city perceives its bargaining position with the railroad.

No one in the city is keen about long coal trains running through the downtown, although they certainly support the DM&E — and any railroad — in farm-to-market and other transport access that enhances the economy of southern Minnesota.

City officials have not been pleased with the attitude of the railroad's representatives, which basically has been "it's our way or the highway. You either take what we give you or suffer the consequences." The city's most recent turnaround on the issue — that is, to support the agreement again — was in response to the $2.5 billion guaranteed federal loan slated for the DM&E that was put into the Transportation Bill by former DM&E lobbyist, now Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. (See any possible conflict of interest here? Or is it just simple corruption?)

There is the old adage: "You can't fight city hall." In this case it was Mankato saying: "You can't fight the federal government."

Were the parameters of the DM&E project to change again — e.g., the loan provision being rescinded — then Mankato would very likely react accordingly.

LP

(For all Vox Verax posts regarding the DM&E, go here.)