Thursday, February 15, 2007

Minncan Pipeline Agents Used Coercive tactics

What else could we expect from the company of Anna Nicole Smiths deceased husband, Koch Industries?

The Strib reports today on the Public Utilities Commission will most likely vote to approve the Minncan pipeline cutting a swath through the heart of rural Central Minnesota.

Jonathon Posusta, who grows 230 acres of corn and soybeans on a century-old family farm near Lester Prairie, broke down several times as he testified that agents representing the pipeline project threatened some of his neighbors, telling them that they would force the pipeline across their land if they didn't sign easement agreements.

An administrative law judge who recommended in November that the state approve the pipeline agreed with Posusta that landowners were sometimes treated poorly by the process. Judge Beverly Jones Heydinger, who oversaw a series of public hearings last fall concerning the pipeline, said some landowners were not told that the original pipeline route had changed, moving the planned path onto their properties, despite initial assurances that it would not cross their land, she noted.

"The pipeline threatens our family and our livelihood," Posusta told the PUC. "The possibility of a leak or spill would always be there. A leak or spill would cause irreversible damage to our farm and our home."

Let's look at that again. Agents for the Minncan pipeline threatened farmers that they would force the pipeline through their property if they did not sign easement agreements. An administrative law judge even stated that the landowners were sometimes treated poorly in the process. Yet, they are going to approve this thing?

Where is the justice behind this.

More to come in the morning...

I have written and called all my locally elected officials and it's about time to start holding people accountable.

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