Christy authorizes large amounts of tar sands oil to travel via rail through NJ

As debate rages in Washington over the environmental risks of allowing Canadian tar sands oil to be pumped across the U.S. in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the Christie administration has quietly approved a permit that essentially opens New Jersey’s rail lines to carry that kind of oil through densely populated towns, past thousands of homes and businesses.

An air permit, issued on Nov. 6 by the state Department of Environmental Protection, allows Buckeye Partners to accept large amounts of Canadian tar sands oil at its newly renovated oil terminal in Perth Amboy, a move company executives have been discussing for at least the past six months.

The DEP also granted the request of the company to more than double the amount of oil it can transfer annually at its wharf to almost 1.8 billion gallons, state officials confirmed.

The state’s approval means there could be 330 more oil trains on New Jersey’s freight lines each year — on top of the trains that already carry as much as 5 billion gallons of volatile crude from North Dakota into the state annually. But while that further solidifies New Jersey’s emergence as a major transportation corridor for fossil fuels, it raises more concerns among firefighters, emergency management officials and environmentalists that a derailment could lead to disaster.

The decision was made without the opportunity for the public to comment – the DEP said the 603-page permit was a “minor modification” that required no public participation. However, a similar permit request by another oil company in Albany, N.Y., has led to a public hearing and a review of safety procedures by New York regulators. It has generated such an intense debate over whether to allow large amounts of heavy crude into the state that New York officials are reevaluating the issue.

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http://www.northjersey.com/news/more-oil-to-travel-on-n-j-railroads-1.1140772?page=all