The shortage of rail cars in the Dakotas for agricultural operations is at a crisis level. That’s according to three South Dakota farmers who held a News Conference in Brown County on Tuesday.  Dennis Jones of Bath, Orrie Swayze of Wilmot and Pat Tracy of Pierre says producers and ethanol plants can’t get rail cars to ship their commodities while ethanol plants are running at 30 to 50 percent capacity because of the shortage. Tracy says the immediate solution is for President Obama to step in.

Tracy says the Bakken oil development has taken many of the rail cars evidenced by the fact in 2009, there were 9,000 rail cars carrying that oil while in 2013 that number had grown to 400,000 cars.  He says the economic impact of the rail car shortage on rural communities is devastating.

He says their suggested long term solution is to have oil from the Bakken fields be delivered along the Keystone Pipeline.

Tracy says Jones will be presenting their solutions to the Surface Transportation Board at their rail hearing on April 10 in Washington D.C.