Has the Missouri Chamber Suddenly Become an Enviro Organization?

The Missouri State Chamber of Commerce and Industry today issued a press release defending Blunt's giveaway of the Katy Trail Bridge in Boonville to the Union Pacific Railroad.

In doing so, they cited environmental concerns saying that the giveaway is an example of "positive natural resources stewardship of reusing the old steel from the bridge..."

Maybe the State Chamber is turning green, or maybe they are weighing in because Dan Mehan is the chief apologist for the Blunt Administration.

Or maybe, they are trying to provide cover for Ted Kettlewell.  Kettlewell is on the Executive Committee of the Missouri State Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and is therefore Dan Mehan's boss.

Kettlewell's company, OCCI, has a $10 million dollar contract with UP to remove the bridge:

"Is it cooler to have an old bridge on the river? Sure," says Ted Kettlewell, vice president of OCCI Inc., the Fulton, Mo., company that Union Pacific has hired to remove the bridge for $9.8 million. But "it's excellent stewardship of resources for the railroad to reuse it," he says.

Just thought you should know.