The Chicago Tribune reports on Tom Daschle's efforts to kill the DM&E Railroad project in South Dakota, the biggest project in our state's history:
There is clout on both sides. Sen. John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who was a lobbyist for DM&E before his election to the Senate in 2004, is championing the railroad's cause in Washington. Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), whom Thune defeated in that election, is opposing the expansion. Daschle, who has considered running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, now sits on the Mayo board of directors.
The fight became personal during the spring when Dayton said the Mayo Clinic is worth more than the entire state of South Dakota. If Rochester's concerns are not addressed, said members of the Minnesota congressional delegation, they will lobby against the loan.
The private and much quieter backdrop to this battle is in Washington, where bureaucrats ultimately will decide whether DM&E will obtain financing to expand and upgrade the rail line. The issue before the Federal Railroad Administration, a close-to-the-vest agency that operates a loan program for railroads, is whether DM&E should receive a $2.5 billion loan.
The railroad plans to use part of the money to build about 260 miles of new track from the Powder River Basin, separate from those currently used by Union Pacific and BNSF. The new track would extend to the western border of South Dakota, where it would connect with existing DM&E rails, heading east to Chicago. The remainder of the money would be used to improve other track, including in Rochester.
"There is an enormous amount of demand for coal today, and two carriers can't take it out fast enough," said Keith Hartwell, a Washington lobbyist for the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association and a supporter of the DM&E plan.
Pointing to what amount to traffic jams on the lines, Hartwell argued that new tracks are needed to satisfy booming demand from utility companies. "As a matter of national policy, the more coal they can haul out of there, the better off we are," he said.
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