Another chance for citizens to weigh in on proposed DM&E expansion

Track the Truth Launches Online Petition against DM&E Taxpayer-funded $2.3 Billion Loan

ROCHESTER, Minn., Feb. 2 -- Track the Truth launched an online petition drive against the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's (DM&E) $2.3 billion taxpayer-funded loan request, which if granted, will be the largest loan ever to a private company in U.S. history. The petition, available on Track the Truth, reflects the growing public opposition to DM&E's loan. The petition was prompted by the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) recent environmental ruling, which starts the beginning of a final 90-day review period. It will be sent to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and will be presented to other federal officials.

Awaiting the FRA Decision on the DM&E

Things are seemingly quiet on the DM&E Railroad expansion project controversy as all parties await the Federal Railroad Administration's decision as to whether it will grant the company's request for a $2.3 billion loan. But the controversy hasn't gone away as concerned citizens as far away as New Hampshire have expressed outrage at the blatant pork barrel legislation that authorizes the FRA to grant low interest, collateral-free, taxpayer guaranteed loans to railroads like the DM&E.

More locally, former Minnesota State Representative and twice Lieutenant Governor candidate Ruth Johnson chimes in with her analysis. And in South Dakota, Vernon C. Schnose and Karen H. Cardenas ask Congress to probe the DM&E's loan request.

The opposition to the DM&E's plan to haul coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin across South Dakota and Minnesota to Midwestern markets is surprisingly diverse, including:

• South Dakota and Wyoming ranchers
• South Dakota Indian tribes
• Citizens in Pierre and Brookings, South Dakota, and Mankato and Winona, Minnesota
• Mayo Clinic
• City of Rochester, Minnesota
• Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce
• Olmsted County, Minnesota
• Winona State University Student Senate
• Minnesota Taxpayers League
• National Taxpayers Union
  

Those supporting the plan, besides the DM&E, include:

• GOTRAC, whose members include a diverse group of cities and interest groups
  
• Minnesota Farm Bureau
• Minnesota Farmers Union

Agricultural interests are the chief cheerleaders for the project because they feel an upgraded DM&E will offer them more and better shipping options for agricultural commodities and products, including ethanol. Yet expansion opponents claim that coal traffic will take precedence over agricultural shipments, leaving some producers in no better shape than they are today.

More on the DM&E controversy can be found at:

• Brookings Register
• Mankato Free Press
• Pierre Capital Journal
• Rapid City Journal
  
• Rochester Post-Bulletin
• Sioux Falls Argus Leader
  
• Winona Daily News
• Winona State Winonan
• Minnesota Monitor
• Vox Verax
• A Bluestem Prairie
• Google News
• Google Blogs