Comment EI-22340
Received or sent (printed as 4/27/2016)
The following is an unedited version of a column I wrote for my local paper, The Times in Ottawa, IL. I submit it to you for review since it is of great concern. GLB Railroad is Just Plain Stupid This is such a dumb idea I have to start with the big picture first because if we don’t understand the big picture we’re all in deep, deep trouble. The simple fact - with extreme emphasis on the word FACT - which no person can intelligently deny is that our planet is heating up. Taking thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of farmland out of production forever only hastens our demise. Simple math tells me that a 200 foot wide swath nearly 300 miles long adds up to an extremely conservative 6000 acres, minimum. When planted with corn, those 6000 acres can remove over 100,000 TONS of carbon dioxide per growing season. If we have been paying attention we all know that CO2 is the greenhouse gas causing our global environmental disaster. This one fact alone should be enough reason to deny the building of this railroad. But another sad fact is that until we are starving and gasping for air while standing knee deep in flood waters we will do nothing to change the way we live, especially if the right people can make a buck off of it. Speaking of money, I find it hard to believe that Frank Patton has 14 investors just sitting around on an 8 billion dollar pile of cash. The first rule in business is don’t use your own money. When Frank Patton says that this project will be privately funded you can believe it is every bit as privately funded as my home is. I purchased my private property using my own money. At least 10% of it was my own money. When an application asks if I own or rent my home I always check the OWN box even though the bank owns a bigger chunk than I actually do. And since the bank sold my mortgage to Fannie Mae the government now holds the title. I’m pretty sure the same thing will happen should this railroad be built. The government, i.e., we the people will foot the bill for this dumb idea. That’s probably why Frank Patton stays mum about his “investors”. The biggest one will be Uncle Sam. And when this railroad goes belly because no one uses it we taxpayers will be left with the bill and the farmland is still gone forever. Uncle Sam also plays a huge role in this fiasco through the abuse of eminent domain. Frank Patton says that if one farmer won’t accept his deal to purchase your land he will simply offer the deal to your neighbor, thereby pitting neighbor against neighbor, farmer against farmer. I understand the logic. You either get the railroad and the money or you still get the railroad but your neighbor gets the money. If both you and your neighbor live with honor and scruples it will come down to a coin toss for whom gets the shaft. In order to allow eminent domain, a judge – just one person - must determine if your livelihood and income producing land is more important for transporting crops rather than growing them. That is absurd in its own right. But that’s not really what Frank Patton wants this railroad for. He doesn’t care about your crops. He wants to bring Canadian Tar sand to refineries in Northern Indiana one day quicker than what happens now. Frank Patton says it’s not about the money, although his “investors” might disagree, it’s all about his legacy. Frank Patton’s legacy will also include the destruction of ancient artifacts. Native Americans were living on this land for thousands of years before Frank Patton had any idea of any sort. There is no telling exactly where the Indians lived and roamed in this area for the past 10 to 20,000 years but I can guarantee if Frank Patton starts digging around where no man has dug before he will most certainly find out. Do you think the Indian tribes whose ancestors lived once lived here might still hold a grudge? Let’s see what happens when someone digs up a bone along any of the four major rivers. While digging along the rivers and fence rows, Frank Patton should take notice of the flora and fauna being dislodged and destroyed. Along with what I mentioned before, anything that grows green absorbs CO2. All the trees and undergrowth will be gone forever. We will lose even more life sustaining vegetation. The surviving wildlife will need to find new places to live while the others will simply put a major disruption in the local food chain. I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the environmental and social issues that this railroad proposal brings up. No one can foresee all the pros and cons of this idea. My biggest fear is the long term effects of such a project. It is a known fact that our planet will have more people to feed as every year marches by. The only way to grow food is by burying a seed underground and letting Mother Nature run her course. We are not getting more ground. In fact, we are losing it. This has got to stop. This must stop now. If not now, when? When will we decide that our world as we have destroyed it cannot sustain us any longer? Today is a good day to make that decision. Yesterday would have been even better.
Submitted by: Kevin Foster · Taxpayer · OTTAWA, IL
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-35952/comment/EI-22340 · back to the docket sheet