he knows which way the wind blows. Sen. Coleman has long been a fence sitter on the proposed Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad expansion into the coal hills of Wyoming.
It has proven to be a highly divisive issue in the southern third of Minnesota. It pits coal and agriculture interests against environmental groups, larger cities, and the Mayo Clinic. The railroads' 2.3 billion dollar federal loan application, enabled by former DME lobbyist, now Senator Thune, R-SD, has put the project front and center. Republicans in the area have hoped the project would just go away, say like our FORMER congressional representative of MN-01, Gil Gutknecht, who lost in the recent election to Tim Walz. Walz, a fighting Dem, took a strong stand against the project. More below the fold:
Gil's operative term when talking about the project was "I'm working behind the scenes", which no one really knew what he meant. Which is maybe why he is no longer our representative. Norm used to be saying the same thing, but now he is saying he will oppose the project if he doesn't see a good mitigation plan by the end of the year for the Mayo Clinic.
See http://www.bluestemprairie.com for more description on the extent of Norm's flip flopping on this issue.
Two examples of recent coverage on the DM&E :
1.Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government. Their comments on the DM&E expansion.:
Taxpayers Go Trick-or-Treating
October 26, 2006 -- Washington, D.C.: Much scarier than the prospect of being haunted by the undead is the prospect of being spooked by a record $8.6 trillion national debt. In the Halloween spirit, Citizens Against Government Waste provides a list of who deserves taxpayer tricks and treats.
Trick: To Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) for helping to secure a $2.3 billion loan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a company for whom he was a lobbyist: the Dakota, Minnesota, and Easter Railroad (DM&E). Sen. Thune had earlier increased the FRA's budget from $3.5 to $35 billion in apparent anticipation of the loan. With a poor safety record and revenues of less than $200 million, DM&E does not appear capable of making the annual $246 million payment, leaving taxpayers with the scary prospect of having to cover the shortfall.
2.Joel Havemann
Times Staff Writer
Copyright 2006 The Los Angeles Times
Excerpts:
Matthew K. Rose, chairman and president of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., whose BNSF Railway competes in the same region as DM&E, has called the loan guarantee "bad public policy."... "If the government allows non-market-based loans of this magnitude for certain carriers," he told a conference this month, "that will have a negative effect on railroads' ability and willingness to invest private capital."
....
The proposal might have been clear sailing if DM&E's tracks did not run within blocks of the Mayo Clinic, which has organized a lobby called the Rochester Coalition to fight the railroad over safety concerns.
"In any category you want to look at -- collisions, derailments, worker accidents -- they are the least safe railroad in the country," said Rochester Coalition consultant Lawrence Mann, a Washington lawyer specializing in railroad safety.
In 2004, a DM&E train derailed when it hit an improperly aligned switch in Balaton, Minn., spilling 15,000 gallons of flammable alcohol and forcing the evacuation of 100 residents.
"If the Balaton accident had occurred in Rochester, it would have been catastrophic," said Mayo spokesman Chris Gade.
......
The accounting firm BearingPoint said in a report in May that even if DM&E were to secure the loans, the company's cash flow would fall short of the amount needed for debt repayment for at least two decades.
"The company appears to be a poor credit risk," BearingPoint said.
"We have serious concerns about the ability of DM&E to repay such a loan" -- an outcome that would leave Washington holding the bag.
See http://www.dmetraintruth.com for lots more dme coverage, and complete articles for the above.