More oil spilled from trains in 2013 than in previous 4 decades, federal data show
Source: McClatchy
WASHINGTON More crude oil was spilled in U.S. rail incidents last year than was spilled in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on such spills, an analysis of the data shows.
Including major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, more than 1.15 million gallons of crude oil was spilled from rail cars in 2013, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
By comparison, from 1975 to 2012, U.S. railroads spilled a combined 800,000 gallons of crude oil. The spike underscores new concerns about the safety of such shipments as rail has become the preferred mode for oil producers amid a North American energy boom.
The federal data does not include incidents in Canada where oil spilled from trains. Canadian authorities estimate that more than 1.5 million gallons of crude oil spilled in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, on July 6, when a runaway train derailed and exploded, killing 47 people. The cargo originated in North Dakota.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/01/20/215143/more-oil-spilled-from-trains-in.html
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)Who has received campaign contributions from the oil industry, and subsequently voted to deregulate fresh water protection and oil transportation by rail?
Quebec's Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster not just tragedy, but corporate crime
So here's my bit of unwelcome sociology: the explosion in Lac-Mégantic is not merely a tragedy. It is a corporate crime scene.
The deeper evidence about this event won't be found in the train's black box, or by questioning the one engineer who left the train before it loosened and careened unmanned into the heart of this tiny town. For that you'll have to look at how Lac-Mégantic was hit by a perfect storm of greed, deregulation and an extreme energy rush driving companies to ever greater gambles with the environment and human life.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2013/jul/11/1
whiteroses
(186 posts)Turbineguy
(37,331 posts)seems to be running things.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)LOOK.
FORWARD.