(By Dustin Bleizeffer Star-Tribune energy reporter)
The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. has dropped condemnation lawsuits against several Wyoming landowners in northeastern Wyoming and said the project has been put on hold.
DM&E’s attorneys today filed a notice of dismal in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne stating, “There are uncertainties regarding the time when DM&E will be able to meet the necessary thresholds for the project, and it is clear that the project will not proceed in the immediate term.”
For nearly 15 years, DM&E has worked a proposal to extend its railroad 278 miles to access the Powder River Basin coal mining district in northeastern Wyoming. In 2007, DM&E filed lawsuits seeking condemnation of some 19 landowners in Converse, Weston, Campbell and Niobrara counties for rights-of-way to some 1,200 linear acres.
In today’s filing, DM&E’s attorneys also stated, “Due to significant changes in the economic climate, DM&E cannot say that there is a reasonable probability that it will proceed with its Powder River Basin project in the near term.”
Canadian Pacific recently acquired DM&E and had said the project would continue as long as it met certain thresholds, including a favorable regulatory climate, available financing and acquisition of land rights.
In today’s filing, DM&E indicated that conditions for all four of those considerations are unfavorable.
“Available financing has tightened, and the country has seen a record economic downturn altering the strategic growth plans of nearly every industry in the country,” DM&E attorney wrote. “This has resulted in a longer timeframe for commencement of the project than anticipated at the time these condemnation actions were filed.”