STAR TRIBUNE ON DM & E: "An unfair fight, even without $2.3 billion in federal support."
The Star Tribune editorializes at great length about the DM & E project in "An unfair fight, even without $2.3 billion in federal support."
We don't remember seeing an editorial that goes on for two pages online. Read it all.
To give readers the flavor, here's the lead:
If you have followed the DM&E Railroad's plan to upgrade tracks and send more trains through Rochester, carrying coal and tankers of toxic cargo by Mayo Clinic, you may wonder how such a bad idea has stayed alive so long.
After all, we routinely see public officials relocate or reject projects with lesser opposition. It is unthinkable, for example, that state officials would consider a highway in this location. Still, if Rochester and Mayo have such a strong case, wouldn't some agency have blocked DM&E by now?
And the conclusion:
We think the FRA should hear in great numbers from Minnesotans who object to DM&E's plans for Rochester, or the closed-door loan that would enable it. So should Minnesota's representatives in Congress. There's not much under the law that people can do to rein in a railroad, but politics is a different arena, where public opinion might actually matter.
One place and time Gil Gutknecht can hear about this is on November 7, a day on which public opinion should matter.
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