Can move worlds, what I hear.
Posted on 10/14/2014 5:19:25 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
DULUTH, Minn. -- Minnesota's leaders want federal help to ease railroad delays.
U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday sent a letter to the head of the Surface Transportation Board saying that rail delays are hurting many parts of the economy.
"As we watch winter come to the state of Minnesota, we have become increasingly alarmed by the service failures of several railroads that serve critical industries in our state," the three Democrats wrote to board Chairman Daniel Elliott.
And on Tuesday, Dayton holds what is expected to be the last of a series of rail safety and rail congestion summits. It will be 10 a.m. at Kirby Ballroom at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. It begins an hour after he is to end an election forum with Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson.
After the rail meeting, Dayton is to meet with Minnesota Power officials.
The state's power companies are among those complaining that overloaded rails are slowing service. Rail congestion is causing power plants to run low on coal.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
No No not a pipe line you do know that that well destroy mother earth.
Read that in a sci-fi novel once also.
Dayton is concerned because somebody told him his meds are shipped to CVS by rail.
In his never-ending quest to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he doesn’t understand how the world works outside of his trust-fund/ governor’s mansion bubble, Governor Dayton this week sent a letter to federal bureaucrats complaining that railroads aren’t doing enough to transport grain and other crops from field to market.
Like the snotty third grader who sits in the front row desk by choice, Dayton acted the part of the tattle tale. “Oh! Oh! Teacher! Teacher! The railroads aren’t playing fair! Punish them!”
Now, if Dayton were something other than a totally disengaged, incompetent and liberal chief executive, he would understand both the science, the math, and the finances of the situation.
There is only so much capacity on a rail line. Therefore, when demand goes up, the capacity goes down.
More oil trains means less capacity, including less capacity for agricultural commodities.
Moreover, BNSF is a private, profit-seeking (gasp!) entity.
They operate their trains and manage their track capacity in a manner that maximizes shareholder value.
If that means giving priority to oil over grain, so be it.
Having said that, what is really galling and insulting to the intelligence of the average person (or below average person) is that the problem is, in large part, of the government’s making.
Frequent and dangerous oil trains are racing through densely populated areas because the governments of both Mark Dayton and Barry Obama have refused to grant permits for the building and expansion of pipelines that would reduce the need for oil trains.
Moreover, the government holds “right of way” legal rights over BNSF tracks to give under-utilized Northstar commuter trains priority over the same tracks.
Thus, a true problem solving elected official would work to expedite pipeline permits and either mothball or suspend Northstar in order to assist both the oil industry and the ag industry, two market sectors that are driving growth and prosperity, unlike the solar and electric car industries.
Instead, political hacks like Dayton fan the flames of emotional and irrational thought, pointing fingers at corporate bogeymen and “demanding” answers from them as to why they can’t defy physics and make more trains run on the tracks than the tracks can physically handle.
Now, some folks might see deeper politics at play. You see, a buddy of Barry Obama, Warren Buffet, owns BNSF Railway. Hence, some are tempted to say that the resistance to oil pipelines is really part of an effort to keep Buffet’s railroad in the black while strangling a competitor.
Now there could some merit to this, as Obama is truly America’s foremost Crony Capitalist president.
But the more likely scenario is that what we are seeing is really just another example of political arson.
The way this metaphorical arson works is that liberal politicians “set the fire” by passing or refusing to pass some law and then they run back to the scene, waving their arms, spraying the garden hose, and then pointing fingers at innocent parties, demanding that they prove they weren’t to blame.
Refuse to grant pipeline permits. Send letters and make statements blaming the railroads. Propose even more government to “solve” the problem.
The political arson construct can be applied to numerous other issues.
Take the tax inversion issue.
Obama and company do nothing to lower America’s high corporate tax rate. They do nothing to eliminate the double taxation of repatriated profits.
Set the house on fire.
Corporations do the rational thing. They go offshore.
Run around screaming “fire” and point fingers while you hold a gas can in one hand and a lighter in the other.
So why do they do this? The answer is simple. This model maximizes governmental power and control.
In this model, the politicians control the whole process from problem to “solution.”
The low information voter eats it up and the most business interests are too intimidated to stand up for themselves.
And this is one of the fundamental truths of liberals. They have no real interest in true public policy solutions. Instead, they only seek to concentrate power in their own hands.
http://anokacountywatchdog.com/email/2014/08.29.14_update.htm
One look at Dayton’s eyes and I knew he was 2/3rds nuts.
What needs to be done: BUILD THE FRIGGIN’ PIPELINE ALREADY!
What will be done: Another massive rail building boondoggle to please the unions.
Can move worlds, what I hear.
back in May I had reservations on Amtrack from Seattle to Chicago. The trip was delayed and then cancelled and then cancelled again. AMTRAK is pretty much out of business because of very long delays and cancellations.
The reason given was a land slide in I believe South Dakota forcing the already overburdened tracks to detour slowing things down further.
The oil trains are part of the problem but apparently out of service track exacerbated the problems
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarter's Expenses?
I read of similar objects in historical fiction. There was a bygone civilization that made things and had a fairly functional economy.
What do you think about Jeff Johnson’s chances to beat this chump? How about GOP efforts to take back the legislature?
Pipelines are OK in eastern Europe to smuggle out a defector to Austria that gets on a Harrier. In America, they are evil tools of climate denying money hoarding haters of the wun and fellow travelers.
Jeff Johnson doesn’t have much of a chance unfortunately. State GOP is broke and they’re relying on Chris Christie to bring in money.
Johnsons’s odds are not good.
He has got very little outside support and has lower name recognition.
These liberal triplets are all against the Keystone pipeline which results in our train tracks being used almost exclusively to transport oil from the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota to the refineries.
It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why the farmers are unable to move their produce to markets, but it does take stupid liberal politicians to ask the question.
(Rolling eyes...)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.