NBC News 9/22/14 includes videos at site
If
the U.S. doesn’t quickly address the safe transportation of oil and
gas, Americans could pay the price with more fiery train and pipeline
accidents, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.
“Without timely action
to address safety risks posed by increased transport of oil and gas by
pipeline and rail, additional accidents that could have been prevented
or mitigated may endanger the public and call into question the
readiness of transportation networks in the new oil and gas
environment,” found the report.
The GAO report focused
on the safety of moving crude oil by train and the growing network of
“gathering lines,” largely unregulated natural gas pipelines. Both have
been subjects of recent investigations by NBC News. The GAO determined
that the Department of Transportation had “not kept pace with the
changing oil and gas transportation environment.”
Oil and gas production
in the U.S. increased more than fivefold between 2007 and 2012, a boom
brought on by technological advances in drilling and hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking.” Vast volumes of oil and gas production soon
outstripped the pipeline infrastructure in place to move them.
Crude producers began to
load their oil on trains. More than 400,000 carloads of crude ran over
North American rails in 2013, up from just 9,500 in 2008. But a series
of explosive wrecks have raised concern about the safety of oil trains
-- the worst, a 2013 derailment outside a small Quebec town, killed
nearly 50 people.
A 2013 NBC News investigation found regulators had long known that the tank cars used to ship oil were vulnerable to rupture in an accident..... read more here
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