Well there seems to be a little more to this story than meets the eye. Barrett claims he was promised the easement when he was building a shipping plant. Granted that is debatable but seems likely since he committed to building the shipping plant and did in fact build the plant. Barrett is willing to pay the $200,000.00 for the road and the road potentially saves Tennessee jobs. If there are safety reason for not granting the easement then fine but otherwise I don't see a big problem here. Barrett has asked for help from the government. I thought the government was here to help? :-)

Do you question the link between campaign contributions and success with the legislature? If there wasn't one do you think the DEO of National Coal would be maxing out to several legislators to get environmental standards relaxed so he can continue to pollute the water supplies of several towns in Tenessee?

TDOT is supposed to be in charge of transportation and safety. If they object why should the legislature over ride them? Frankly I don't think there is anything here that doesn't meet the eye. Man gives money to legislators, man gets favors overriding the regulatory bodies of our state. Simple.