In today's Mankato Free Press, Mark Fischenich reports that Walz, Coleman talk over DM&E Go Over to the Free Press article to read the whole thing.
. . . Coleman and Walz also met this week in Coleman’s office.
“DM&E was at the center of our conversation,” Coleman said.
The DOT’s Credit Council is expected to meet again in a week and could make a determination then, according to Meredith Salsbery, communications director for Walz. The council’s ruling could range from simply recommending the loan be granted, recommending that it be rejected or recommending the loan with conditions.
The loan application, if it doesn’t suffer an outright rejection by the Credit Council, would then go to the Office of Management and Budget which would set the terms of any loan. After that, the head of the Federal Railroad Administration — a division of the Department of Transportation — would need to sign off on the loan. Finally, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters would review it.
Officially, members of Congress aren’t entitled to direct input on the review of loan applications to the Federal Railroad Administration. That doesn’t mean that Walz, Coleman and Sen. Amy Klobuchar aren’t trying to influence the conditions and terms placed on the loan at any step of the approval process.
“Sen. Coleman and Rep. Walz and I are continuing to work to make sure these trains don’t go through the heart of Rochester,” Klobuchar said this week.
The loan request is controversial not only because of opposition in Rochester, Mankato and some other places along the 900-mile route but also because it would constitute the largest federal loan to a private business in American history. In addition, the loan was made possible when South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a former DM&E lobbyist, quietly added a little-noticed provision to a federal transportation bill making the loan possible.
But Walz said the issue is now receiving much closer examination in Washington, D.C. The DOT has asked the DM&E to get a credit rating by Standard and Poors, and DOT officials have sought the opinion of a private financial analyst. . . .
Imagine that: lawmakers from both parties working together to make sure their constituents' interests are considered in Washington D.C.
There's something else going on, too:
“This process is getting much more daylight,” Walz said. “It’s getting much more scrutiny. ... People are saying this is what should have happened years ago.”
Update: The Winona Daily News reports mre on the DM & E:
. . .The project is now “getting much more daylight, getting much more scrutiny,” Walz said in a conference call Thursday.
DM&E wants to add track to the Powder River Basin coal fields in Wyoming and upgrade its existing line in South Dakota and Minnesota. The project would mean more trains traveling faster to haul coal and other commodities across the railroad’s Midwest network, which includes Winona.
Critics are concerned about the increased train traffic and possible environmental effects from a hazardous spill or derailment. The most vocal opponent is the Rochester Coalition, made up of the Mayo Clinic, Olmsted County, the city of Rochester and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.
Walz has never directly opposed the project, though he has raised concerns about the transparency of the loan and environmental review processes.
“If this is a project that’s needed, if it’s going to be good for our producers, for our ethanol producers, we want to make sure that it’s a healthy project that’s going to be around for a long time,” Walz said. . . .
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