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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,886 posts)
Wed Dec 17, 2014, 11:35 AM Dec 2014

U.S. taxpayers help fund oil-train boom amid safety concerns

Last edited Wed Dec 17, 2014, 03:01 PM - Edit history (1)

You might conclude that some of the grants are both reasonable and justified, but I'm going to link to this news article anyway. I report; you decide. You know how that works.

Full disclosure: I own rail stocks, but not any BNSF. Some guy named Warren owns that one.

U.S. taxpayers help fund oil-train boom amid safety concerns

By Jarrett Renshaw
NEW YORK Mon Dec 15, 2014 7:28am EST

(Reuters) - For the past 18 months, Americans from Albany to Oregon have voiced growing alarm over the rising number of oil-laden freight trains coursing through their cities, a trend they fear is endangering public safety. ... In at least a handful of places, the public is also helping fund it.

States and the federal government have handed out tens of millions in public dollars to rail companies and government agencies to expand crude oil rail transportation across the country, a Reuters analysis has found. ... The public assistance in states like New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oklahoma and Oregon comes as railroads are posting record profits, and as state and federal authorities press for safety overhauls that the oil and rail industries have opposed, following several explosive derailments.

The Reuters analysis identified 10 federal and state grants either approved or pending approval, totaling $84.2 million, that helped boost the number of rail cars carrying crude oil across the nation. ... The funds are a fraction of total public funding for railroads each year, and look small compared to the $24 billion railroads themselves are spending annually on infrastructure.

But with oil-train safety under heavy scrutiny, the public grants could be controversial and add to growing strains between the industry and some local communities who say they are ill-prepared to deal with oil spills or derailments.

Factbox: Taxpayers help subsidize oil-by-rail boom

By Jarrett Renshaw
NEW YORK Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:31am EST

(Reuters) - A Reuters analysis identified 10 federal and state grants either approved or pending approval, totaling $84.2 million, that helped boost the number of rail cars carrying crude oil across the nation. Here is a description of each one.

{snip, because I can't list them all}

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw, editing by John Pickering)
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