Patrick Rucker, Reuters Business News Network
June 2, 2014
Oil industry studies concluding that Bakken crude oil is safe to move by
rail under existing standards may underestimate the dangers of the fuel
and should
not be the last word, U.S. lawmakers and industry officials said on
Monday.
In the past year, several doomed oil trains originated from North
Dakota's Bakken region, including a shipment that jumped the tracks and
burst into flames
in Lynchburg, Virginia, on April 30. Last July, a fiery derailment
destroyed the center of the village of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47
people.
Two industry-funded studies conclude Bakken fuel is rightly classed as a
flammable liquid that can safely move in standard tank cars. The cargo
is nothing
akin to flammable gasses like propane that must move in costlier,
heavier vessels, the oil industry has said.
But the industry findings hinge on incomplete and out-of-date methods
for determining vapour pressure, an important indicator of volatility,
that may miss
the true dangers of Bakken fuel, according to several industry
officials.
Lawmakers say they expect regulators to scrutinize the industry's findings.
"These studies should be taken with a grain of salt," said Senator
Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, a state that is a major
pass-through point for
Bakken fuel.
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