(The Associated Press circulated the following article on April 2.)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Former congressman and Gov. Bill Janklow has joined a group of consultants dealing with concerns from the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad’s expansion through Rochester, Minn., The Argus Leader reported in a copyright story Saturday.
The Mayo Clinic has objected to the expansion because it would bring up to 34 additional trains through the city.
Terry Adkins, Rochester city attorney, said Janklow will help on several fronts, including possible mediation.
Janklow, whose law license was reinstated earlier this year, told officials in Rochester that he wasn’t trying to kill the project but he is angry with funding issues.
“America needs a diverse source of coal, more efficient access to energy resources. I love what this will do for South Dakota, Minnesota and Wyoming. It is a win-win all the way,” Janklow told The Argus Leader. “But I’ve got 20 years in elective office, and I have never seen anything like this. I accepted this (job) because I feel the project is immoral. You don’t have to run over little people to do it.”
Kevin Schieffer, DM&E’s president and chief executive officer, called Janklow’s move “the most extraordinary sellout and betrayal of South Dakota interests.”
Schieffer said he has heard Janklow praise the project on a number of occasions.
“It is unimaginable for a former public official,” he said. “It is a case of duplicity and contrary to what he told the people of South Dakota in the past. For him to go to work for the one group on the whole line dedicated to kill it is mind-numbing to me.”
The Rochester City Council last month authorized an appeal of the federal Surface Transportation Board ruling to permit the expansion of the railroad through town.
The Sioux Falls-based railroad wants to add track to the Powder River Basin coal fields in Wyoming and upgrade its existing line in South Dakota and Minnesota in order to connect the Basin coal fields to consumers in the Midwest and East.
The DM&E project would involve building about 280 miles of new track and upgrading 600 miles of existing track.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., inserted language into a transportation bill last summer that expanded the amount of federal money available for small railroads to borrow, helping DM&E apply for a $2.5 billion government loan. Thune had lobbied for the railroad before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
Janklow said he believes in the project and wants to see it go ahead. But he also said it raises questions about the federal law that offered opportunities for the DM&E.
Some of the high profile parties jumping into the DM&E expansion arena have crossed paths politically.
When Janklow was governor in the 1980s and 1990s, Schieffer worked for then Sen. Larry Pressler, whom Janklow defeated in the 2002 GOP primary for the U.S. House.
When Thune challenged and beat Sen. Tom Daschle in 2004, Janklow, a Republican, threw his support to Daschle, a Democrat.
Daschle was appointed to the Mayo Clinic’s board of directors in February but said at the time that it would not put him at odds with the coal train project.