Comment EI-19867
Received or sent (printed as 1/11/2013)
Docket No. FD 30186 Dear Mr. Ken Blodgett, I am highly concerned about the impacts that a Tongue River Railroad would have. Specifically: • Public convenience and necessity: It is not right for our government to use the power of eminent domain and condemnation authority in this case. This proposed railroad is not for the “public convenience and necessity.” It would serve only one coal company, Arch Coal; the coal is not being mined for domestic needs. • Wildlife: Not only does the Tongue River Valley itself support rich wildlife populations highly valued by sportsmen and many others, the increase in coal trains across Montana and beyond would lead to an unconscionable increase in wildlife collisions with trains. Increased train traffic in wildlife crossing zones – including recognized movement corridors important for wildlife migration, such as the routes north from Yellowstone National Park – would impact wildlife populations, and this must be addressed. • Increased train traffic: This project would impact many, many communities along our rail lines as the coal heads to coastal ports for shipment. Increase coal train traffic – a result of the Tongue River rail-line – will cause more delays, more noise, more diesel pollution, more noxious weed spreading, more dead/injured wildlife. Increased train traffic not only inconveniences a large number of citizens, it often require expensive over passes and safety crossing which are paid for primarily by taxpayers. • Property value: This railroad will cause fires, spread weeds and make ranching and farming more difficult and expensive. It will split ranch land in half and separate fields from the river. Most insidious, it will shift the liability of train crossings to the landowner – that makes NO sense. Perhaps most important for our children, the Tongue River Railroad will allow coal that should stay in the ground to be burned in power plants on the other side of the world, power plants with few (if any) restrictions on emissions. This continued addition to decades-long increases in CO2 in our atmosphere can’t go on for the profits of a few businessmen and shareholders. The climate impacts of Otter Creek coal go far beyond just burning the coal. This coal must be mined and then hauled by diesel-powered trains and ships half way around the globe. It simply does not make sense. Sincerely, Kathleen Wright Bozeman, Montana
Submitted by: Kathleen Wright · Bozeman, Montana
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-30186/comment/EI-19867 · back to the docket sheet