A MinnCan LTE! Dassel Cokato Enterprise Dispatch!

Yesterday I posted some info and an update on the MinnCan pipeline being forced down the collective throats of rural West Central Minnesotan's.

Finally, some local coverage of the issue. The Enterprise Dispatch, a Dassel, Cokato, Darwin newspaper, has a LTE on the issue.

MinnCan’s crude oil pipeline severely impacts the lives of over 1,000 property owners in Minnesota, by taking their land and offering to pay pennies on the dollar for their property loss.

This is a significant concern for many farmers out here in rural Minnesota. Depsite that, and that all of our locally elected leaders have been endorsed and recieved money from the Farm Bureau, action seems to be very slow towards halting the proposed pipeline. Rep Urdahl is the only locally elected leader who has done anything thus far on this, meeting with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and with farmers in the Eden Valley area.

Senator Dille and Representative Shimanski has stated concern but I have seen little or no actual action thus far.

I wonder if all the PAC money from the petroleum industry has anything to do with this?

The LTE has an action to be taken as well, which all grassroots, issue based advocates must have.

The action is to lobby our elected officials to add language to protect property owners from the pipeline industry thugs, like Koch Industries. We already do it for the powerlines, we ought to do it for pipelines as well. It's really a very logical solution.

The “Buy the Farm - Pipeline Act” is based directly off an existing statute informally called the “Buy the Farm Act” (Minn.Stat 216E.12). “Buy the Farm” gives property owners the option to require proposers of high-voltage transmission lines to purchase their entire property rather than just an easement. The new law would simply extend this option to land owners that are affected by large crude oil pipelines.

So, get ahold of your State Senator and State Representative and make them aware of the issue. We strongly urge all of those affected, or who support the property owners in harm’s way, to call, e-mail, or write their representatives, asking them to bring the “Buy the Farm - Pipeline Act” to the floor. To find out who represents you, go to www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/Districtfinder.asp

Excellent LTE! We'll keep the pressure on!