Justice for Lac Megantic

July 11, Citizens for a Clean Harbor held a benefit for the Harding Labrie Defense Fund, and raised $135. Thank you to everyone involved!

Donate now to help ensure a vigorous 

and fair legal defense

For background on the case, listen to this radio interview from Your Rights at Work! via Pacifica Radio

Herbert Harris Jr (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers &
Trainmen) reports on a local fundraiser to support Canadian rail workers being blamed for management’s mistakes in the 2013 Lac Megantic disaster.

Interview begins at 14.40

Our own Donna Albert sang this song for us.

Special thanks go to Fritz Edler of Railroad Workers United, for all his help and insightful discussion via Skype.

The Evidence is in: The Train Crew did not Cause the Lac-Mégantic Tragedy

Music Benefit for Lac-Mégantic Rail Worker Defense a great success!

Over $1700 raised kicking off fund drive for defense of the scapegoated rail workers and fighting for safe rails everywhere.

via The Harding Defense Fund

How many more have to die?

July 6th this year marks four years since a runaway train carrying volatile Bakken crude crashed and burned in the small town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 and destroying half the town. It’s time to recommit to making sure tragedies like this don’t happen again. It’s also the right time to speak up against the criminal trial beginning September 11th this year, that unfairly and inaccurately hangs the Lac-Mégantic crash on two railroad workers, Tom Harding and Richard Labrie.

Railroad managers push hard to squeeze every dollar they can out of every train run. The Lac-Mégantic train had a dangerous cargo, overlong train, defective equipment, a single crew-member and work rules that cut the margin of safety down to just about zero. The result was a disaster that still impacts the Lac-Mégantic community.

Multiple government safety investigations and independent journalists looked at what happened in Lac-Mégantic and came to the same conclusion. Railroad management policies made this kind of runaway train crash likely to happen sooner or later. Lax government oversight looked the other way until it did.

You would think that four years later there would be stronger safety regulations on every railroad, with extra layers of protection for dangerous cargo. Sadly, this is not the case. Railroad policymakers are still cutting corners and government regulators are still looking the other way. They want people to believe that the big safety problem is a few careless railroad workers.  But in Lac-Mégantic, SINCE the wreck, the supposedly safely restored wreck curve has now deteriorated and keeps that community at risk.  Everyone there tightens up when a train passes now.

Even after all the reports and exposes, the Canadian and Quebec governments are still not going after the railroad policy makers and their unsafe policies. The managers who made the critical policies will not even get a slap on the wrist. That’s just wrong, and it guarantees that the danger continues. Every year since the crash, the number of reported runaway trains in Canada has increased. That’s a sign of a reckless culture, not the actions of two rail-road workers one night in Quebec.

Whether your main issue is the environment, community safety, rail safety, or worker’s rights, it comes down to stronger government regulations and stronger railroad safety policies, with real community and labor enforcement. The two railroad workers were not the cause of the Lac-Mégantic crash or any of the runaway trains since then. They are not the ones still running trains right through the town of Lac-Mégantic, ignoring the demands of the survivors for a simple rail bypass. The people in Lac-Mégantic know that sending Harding and Labrie to prison won’t address any of their problems with the railroad. But if that happens, you can bet the government will close the book as the official verdict on Lac-Mégantic and railroad management will be standing there with them.

When you hold public commemorations this year, we ask you to make this point your way. Blaming Harding and Labrie for the Lac-Mégantic tragedy weakens all of us and all our causes. So all of us have to speak up.

Donate now to help ensure a vigorous 

and fair legal defense

Justice for Lac-Mégantic requires Dropping the Charges Against Harding & Labrie

see page 2 for more from Lac Megantic

Why no Rail track wear standards for hauling hazardous materials?

 

Derailed freight train. Elliott City MD, 2012.

Rail track wear standards elude agreement

MATTHEW BROWN and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writers
Dec 6, 2015   Herald & Review

A pair of train derailments in 2012 that killed two people in Maryland and triggered a fiery explosion in Ohio exposed an unsettling truth about railroads in the U.S. and Canada: No rules govern when rail becomes too worn down to be used for hauling hazardous chemicals, thousands of tons of freight or myriad other products on almost 170,000 miles of track.

U.S. transportation officials moved to establish universal standards for when such steel gets replaced, but resistance from major freight railroads killed that bid, according to Associated Press interviews with U.S. and Canadian transportation officials, industry representatives and safety investigators.

Now, following yet another major accident linked to worn-out rails — 27 tanker cars carrying crude oil that derailed and exploded in West Virginia earlier this year — regulators are reviving the prospect of new rules for worn rails and vowing they won't allow the industry to sideline their efforts.

"We try to look at absolutely every place where we can affect and improve safety," said Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg. "Track generally is the place that we're focusing at the moment, and it's clearly overdue. Rail head wear is one place in particular that we feel like needs to be addressed as soon as possible."

An official announcement on the agency's intentions to revisit rail wear is expected by the end of the year.

In the meantime, federal regulators haven't taken the positive steps that they need to, said Ronald Goldman, an attorney for the families of the two 19-year-old women who died in a 2012 derailment outside Baltimore.

"It's a lack of will, not a lack of ability, in my opinion," he added.

Industry supporters argue that the seven major freight railroads in the U.S. and Canada are in the best position to know what is going on with their lines, including when they need to be replaced or have the maximum speeds for trains traveling on them lowered.....   more here

 

Are US Regulators Trying to Cover Up Influence Of Oil Lobbyists?

Are US Regulators Trying to Cover Up Influence Of Lobbyists On New Oil-By-Rail Regulations?

By Mike Gaworecki • Sunday, August 9, 2015     DeSmogBlog 

 

It’s no secret that the oil and rail industries lobbied the Obama Administration heavily during the creation of new oil-by-rail regulations released this past May, with lobbyists reportedly not even taking a break the day after a major oil train accident.

But just how much influence did lobbyists actually have in the drafting of the regulations?

Environmentalists who criticize the new rules as far too weak to stop business-as-usual — which has already resulted in five oil train explosions so far this year — are endeavoring to find out by submitting Freedom of Information Act requests for correspondence between lobbyists and five federal agencies within the US Department of Transportation that worked on the oil train safety rules.

So far, they say, they’ve been stonewalled by the Obama Administration.

The FOIA requests were originally filed in January by La Crosse, WI’s Citizens Acting for Rail Safety, Communities for a Better Environment, Albany, NY’s Ezra Prentice Homes Tenants Association and ForestEthics. The rules came out on May 1.

The groups were seeking all records of communications exchanged between lobbyists and staff at the Federal Railroad Administration, the Surface Transportation Board, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Office of the Secretary of Transportation since January 1, 2012.

Some 97 individual lobbyists were named in the requests, among them representatives from trade groups like the American Petroleum Institute and the Association of American Railroads as well as oil and rail companies including Chevron, Tesoro, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF).

Six former members of the US Congress, including Trent Lott, Vin Weber, John Breaux, Steve LaTourette, Max Sandlin and Bill Lipinski, are also among the lobbyists named in the requests.

Under FOIA regulations, the federal agencies had a deadline of 30 days to respond, with an optional ten-day extension. Yet only two agencies have responded so far, the Surface Transportation Board and the National Transportation Safety Board — both of which are advisory bodies, as opposed to the regulatory agencies that are tasked with actually writing the rules.

“Can’t think of another reason why they wouldn’t take common-sense, immediate measures”

ForestEthics filed appeals with the remaining three agencies in March, well after they'd already missed the deadline. On May 19, the Office of the Secretary of Transportation’s general council granted the appeal and ordered the agency’s FOIA official to schedule the release of the documents. But two months later, no documents have been released.

The acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration granted another of the appeals on July 27, but no timeline for the release of those documents has been proposed.

DeSmog has previously uncovered White House meeting logs that show the oil and rail industries had privileged access to key administration personnel.   ~continued below~

Oil Industry's devastating alternative to the Clean Power Plan

The Oil Industry's devastating alternative to the Clean Power Plan

Nick Abraham editor Oil Check Northwest 
 
August 6th - Earlier this week, President Obama announced its long awaited Clean Power Plan, and the new rules were met with plenty of fanfare from all of us that want clean air to breathe and a healthy climate to live in.

Unsurprisingly, oil and coal companies were not as pleased. They’ve organized an army of front groups, pseudo-think tanks and bought off organizations to attack and cripple the plan.

Locally, “astro-turf” groups like Oregonians for Sound Fuel Policy and the Washington Climate Collaborative are not just attacking action like the Clean Power Plan. They have a widespread agenda to prevent new environmental protections and undercut the Northwest’s progress.

They’ve laid out an alternative to a clean energy future, a Dirty Power Plan, for the Northwest. You won’t see them announcing it from podiums or siting down with Katie Couric to talk it over. But make no mistake the fossil fuel industry has a plan for our corner of the world.

1. Sinking Clean Fuels

No surprise here. With a virtual monopoly on what we can fuel up with, oil companies are fighting desperately to prevent either state from enacting a clean fuels program. Despite putting $2 million into Oregon campaigns in 2014 clean fuels prevailed in a landmark victory this past session in Oregon. The legislature mandated that 10% of fuels in the state must come from renewable sources. Not one’s to bow out gracefully,oil companies have put forth 3 different ballot measures for 2016 that would repeal or weaken clean fuels.

In Washington, legislators who received millions from oil companies, almost completely derailed compromise on a new transportation package by trying to preemptively block clean fuels. Senate leaders added a poison pill to the transportation package that said if Governor Inslee implemented clean fuels through executive order all alternative transportation funding would move to road construction. In an effort to keep our state moving (literally), the Governor begrudgingly accepted the deal. Chalk one up for the oil companies.

2. Pipelines Trains and Terminals

The Northwest stands directly between Asian markets and major fossil fuel deposits in Canada and the interior Western US. The fastest, cheapest route to getting their coal, oil and natural gas to export is through our backyard, and that’s exactly what their Dirty Power Plan would propose.
Here’s what that would look like:

- Coal terminals North of Bellingham and Longview WA with over 90 million metric tons of coal total

- Expanded Bakken crude oil refining in Ferndale, Anacortes, Tacoma, Hoquiam, and Vancouver WA as well as Clatskanie OR could move over 1 million barrels/day through our region. That’s 14 oil trains a day

- Natural gas: 140 miles of new pipeline from Sumas WA to Warrenton OR cutting through major population centers along the I-5 corridor as well as a 230 mile line from Malin to Coos Bay OR

3. Keeping Pollution Free

This year, both Oregon and Washington had bills in the legislature to put a price on pollution. In Oregon bill 3470 would have given the state the authority to regulate pollutants much the same way as California currently does, through a carbon cap and trade system. A second bill (3250), would have charged polluters a fee and given that money back to each Oregonian with a dividend check, very similar to Alaska's program that charges oil companies a royalty and gives checks to every resident. (If you've ever had a friend from Alaska they cannot shut up about their "free" check every year)

Unfortunately both bills didn’t make it out of session, as a transportation fight took out all the air in the legislature. Much in the same was as Washington; a provision was added to the transportation package that would cut clean fuels in exchange for a deal. Only this time oil companies were caught red handed writing the bill themselves. After a drawn out battle, the package was killed and clean fuels lived on to fight an other day.

In Washington Governor Inslee laid out a proposal to cut emissions from the state’s largest industrial polluters, a plan that would have given the billions raised to badly need transportation improvements and education funding that’s still in a $3.5 billion hole. This bill, similar to Oregon, was killed after a barrage of attacks from oil-backed legislators.

Not to be out maneuvered, in late July, Governor Inslee announced that the state would be regulating emissions through the Department of Ecology’s mandate. As impressive as this plan is, it still needs backup to be completely effective. To truly have a strong impact, the law will need a way to enforce the regulations. Many predict that a price on pollution will be put on the ballot in 2016 and this would give the Governor’s proposal some much needed teeth.

This week’s Clean Power Plan announcement was a powerful step forward; we couldn’t be happier to see a tough but achievable strategy to cut emissions. But lets not forget that fossil fuel companies have a plan of their own. And the Dirty Power Plan does not paint a bright future for the Northwest.

Nick Abraham editor Oil Check Northwest
nick@oilchecknw.com 

Oil train insurance minimums in question

 

Photo by REUTERS Wagons of the oil freight train that derailed and crashed in Lac Megantic, Quebec are seen on July 9, 2013

Oil train insurance minimums in question

By Donna Mahoney     Business Insurance   7/28/15

 

A little more than two years have passed since an unattended runaway train from the now-bankrupt Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Co. derailed and crashed, spilling oil that caught fire in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and killing 47 people.

Within the past two years over a dozen trains transporting crude oil have derailed in North America. And while there are still no U.S. regulations regarding minimum insurance coverages for these trains, Canada's government in July approved the Safe and Accountable Rail Act, which consists of a new liability and compensation program requiring the rail industry and crude oil shippers pay for minimum levels of insurance ranging from $25 million to $1 billion.

The regulation also requires a supplementary shipper-financed fund that provides compensation to victims and funds for environmental cleanup for railway accidents involving crude oil that exceed the amount of insurance held by the railway.

Railway safety experts say this amount of insurance is insufficient for the damage some spills could cause.

“The railroads can get up to $1.5 billion in insurance, but that is not enough,” said Fred Millar, and Arlington, Virginia-based oil and energy safety consultant. The cost of the Lac-Mégantic disaster is already estimated at $1.5 billion, according to reports. 

Every week, 49 trains with over 1 million gallons of crude oil pass through Chicago. In Albany, New York, it's 44 trains and in Cleveland, 55, according to U.S. crude oil shipment reports released in March.

One of the concerns of a crude oil train derailment is the risk of the oil catching on fire, especially in a highly populated area, Mr. Millar said. “Most citizens have no idea of the risk imposed on them or that railroads do not carry the amount of insurance necessary to cover a catastrophe in a highly populated area,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reminded railways on July 22 to obey last year's order “to report the weekly frequency of shipments of 1 million gallons or more of Bakken crude, the routes they use and the counties through which they pass.” Illinois, New York and Ohio have said have not received a report from one of the railways in over a year, according to news reports.

 

Letter to Warren Buffett: Put Public Safety Before Profit!

Oil train derailed under Seattle's Magnolia bridge- July, 2014

An Open Letter to Warren Buffett: Put Public Safety Before Profit and Prioritize Oil Train Regulation

Mike O'Brien,  Seattle City Councilmember     HuffPost    July 22, 2015

Dear Mr. Buffett,

One year ago this week, an oil train passing through Seattle ran off the tracks underneath the Magnolia Bridge, derailing three of its 100 tank cars carrying Bakken crude oil from North Dakota. Considering that unrefined Bakken crude is highly volatile, we count ourselves lucky to have avoided the catastrophic impacts these tank cars could have brought upon this city.

Today I write to you inviting an action that supports the best interest of Seattle and furthers your legacy as a leader of integrity for your generation. As local and federal policymakers grapple with the increasing risks oil trains pose to our communities, you are faced with a watershed moment. You can use your influence as the largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns not only Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF), but also Union Tank Car, to minimize the risk to life, property, and the environment from oil trains.

An oil spill in Seattle so close to Puget Sound could take millions of dollars to clean up and a generation to recover. Or worse, an explosion in Seattle could result in an untold loss of human life and property damage if it were to occur downtown along the railroad tracks that run a stone's throw away from the stadiums where the Mariners and Seahawks play. Frighteningly, these scenarios are well within the realm of possibility, as we have already seen five fiery oil train derailments in North America this year. Something must be done to protect Seattle and countless other cities across the country that bear the risk that your deadly oil trains pose.

I've done everything I know how to do as a citizen, an activist, and as a City Councilmember to try and stop an inevitable disaster from happening. But cities are severely limited in our ability to impose regulatory measures on oil trains. The federal government has primary jurisdiction to regulate railroad use and therefore has the most authority to mitigate the potential for tragic consequences associated with oil train accidents.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe and railroad industry representatives have used their influence to routinely oppose federal and state safety regulations such as speed limits, public information disclosure, liability coverage for catastrophic incidents, minimum staffing requirements on trains, and electronically controlled pneumatic braking systems. And as a result of industry pressure, Model DOT-111 tank cars full of crude oil will still be allowed on rail lines passing through Seattle for at least two more years, despite the fact that they have a "high incidence of failure during accidents" and "can almost always be expected to breach in derailments that involved multiple car-to-car impacts," according to a 2012 Railroad Accident Report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

This industry opposition poses disastrous consequences for which railroad companies are not prepared. The Bakken crude-filled oil train that derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec vaporized 47 people instantly. In addition to the terrible loss of life, liabilities totaled upwards of $2 billion and forced the railroad company into bankruptcy. Yet, as the Wall Street Journal reports, there is not enough commercial insurance coverage in the world to adequately cover the costs that would be associated with a worst-case oil train derailment in a major city like Seattle. 

Lac Megantic after oil train explosion, July 2013

Oil trains are ticking time bombs on rails, and each one passing through a small town in North Dakota or a large city like Seattle is a risk to the people and the environment of that community. We urgently need stronger federal protections against these dangerous oil trains rolling through our communities. So I urge you to use your immense influence in Washington, DC and around the country to call for the immediate passage of the Crude-by-Rail Safety Act.

This Act, sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (WA-D), Tammy Baldwin (WI-D), Diane Feinstein (CA-D) and Patty Murray (WA-D), would strengthen notification and disclosure requirements regarding oil by rail shipments, require refinement of volatile Bakken crude prior to transport, improve oil tank car safety, and establish comprehensive emergency response plans in the event of large oil train accidents. These regulations will provide far greater assurances than those given by BNSF or Berkshire Hathaway thus far.

On the one-year anniversary of Seattle's own oil train accident, I implore to you join me in calling for public safety over profit. I ask that Berkshire Hathaway and BNSF take full responsibility for the risks they impose on Seattle and other cities across the country. I call on you to use the full force of your influence to support the federal regulations necessary for the oil and rail industries to bear the costs and risks of safe oil production and transport. Doing nothing -- or worse, continuing opposition to new safety regulations -- puts the lives of the millions of people living and working along these railways in danger, jeopardizes your legacy, and could leave you with blood (and oil) on your hands.
Please join with Seattle and cities around the country in calling for the safe, responsible transport of oil by rail, and help us get out of this unjust situation where you make all the profit while we bear all the risk.

Sincerely,
Mike O'Brien
Seattle City Councilmember

Fun and Games Friday: Ignoring public safety (for a small fee)

Using bad tank cars? Then pay a fee, Brown proposes 

By Rick Rouan    The Columbus Dispatch  •  June 30, 2015 

[Ed. note: this "pay a pittance" bill was sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Mark Warner, D-Va. who continue to promote it.]

Sen. Sherrod Brown wants shippers using tank cars that have been linked to fiery train derailments to pay fees that would be used to reroute train tracks, train first responders and clean up spills.

Brown has proposed fees that start at $175 per car for those using the DOT-11, a tank car that federal regulators have warned hazardous-material shippers against using.

The fees would pay to clean up hazardous-material spills, to move tracks that handle large volumes of hazardous material and to hire more railroad inspectors. Brown’s bill earmarks about $45 million over three years to train first responders near rail lines that carry large quantities of hazardous material.

Earlier this year, federal regulators tightened rules on newly manufactured tank cars but did not require shippers to immediately remove the old cars.

“(The rule) probably didn’t go far enough,” Brown said on Tuesday at the site of a 2012 derailment and explosion near the state fairgrounds. “If it’s a threat to public safety, they probably need to be off the rails.”

The federal rule will phase out or require retrofitting of thousands of the oldest tank cars that carry crude oil by 2018. Another wave of the oil-carrying tankers would have to change by 2020.

Some of the tank cars that aren’t carrying crude oil would not be replaced or retrofitted until 2025.

Brown’s proposal calls for a tax credit for companies that upgrade their tank cars to the new federal standard in the next three years.

Chet Thompson, president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers trade association, said his organization would oppose the fee structure Brown proposed.....  more here

The Making of an Energy Ghetto  

Utilities efforts to turn back the clean-energy revolution would block low-income communities from realizing the benefits

Earthtalk       Denise Fairchild      07/01/2015

The clean-energy revolution is underway, and so is the war against it. As with every other major economic transition, this battle will have winners and losers. For low-income communities of color, the stakes are especially high: Will they reap the benefits of the emerging clean-energy economy or will they be locked into energy ghettos?

 

Here’s the context. Renewable energy — solar and wind — is quickly replacing fossil fuels as the preferred energy source. It is now cheaper than coal and most other fossil fuels. Innovative financing mechanisms have eliminated out-of-pocket costs for installing these technologies, enabling homeowners to save and even earn money from energy production. For example, “net metering” lets solar-powered households sell their surplus energy back to the grid for a profit — sending their electric meters spinning counterclockwise.

The utility sector is not happy with these developments, and it is fighting back. A recent Washington Post article cites utilities’ efforts to influence legislators, state public service commissions and — of particular concern — minority organizations. They want to eliminate net metering and assess households with solar-power systems a monthly surcharge to offset the utilities’ sunk capital investments and maintenance costs. And they have convinced some minority organizations that, without the surcharge, the poor will pay more through rate hikes as clean-energy and net-metering schemes benefit only well-to-do families.

This is a specious argument with potentially dangerous and unfortunate consequences, particularly for low-income residents. Eliminating net metering or placing a surcharge on households that migrate off the grid would foster a two-tiered energy society. These steps would render solar power unaffordable for low-income households, locking in historical racial and class hierarchies. The problems are analogous to the forces that created and sustained central-city ghettos.....   more here

 

Diverse voices ask WA legislature to stand up against oil industry pressure

Diverse voices ask WA legislature to stand up against oil industry pressure; protect health, safety, communities

Health, labor, environment, and social justice groups call for end to oil’s roadblock on key issues

Olympia, WA – A diverse coalition is calling on the State Legislature to stand up to the undue influence of the oil industry that is putting Washington’s health, climate, safety, and communities at risk.

“When progress on our health and environment is blocked, time and time again, you find the fingerprints of the oil industry,” said Becky Kelley, president, Washington Environmental Council. “The cynical maneuvering of Big Oil is holding up a needed transportation revenue package, where they have convinced the Senate to go along with a last ditch effort to block a Clean Fuel Standard. They gutted the oil transportation safety bill. They’re fighting the commonsense closure of the Big Oil Tax Loophole. And they killed any hope of climate action this year. At what point will our leaders say, enough is enough?”

This legislative session, in addition blocking the transportation revenue package with a “poison pill”, the oil industry lobbying has resulted in the Big Oil Tax Loophole remaining open in the latest budget draft, no progress on climate policy, and an oil transportation bill which failed to provide needed protection for Puget Sound and delivered unreliable funding for protecting communities. 

“When you look at the Senate’s proposal on transportation revenue, it’s pretty clear who is being prioritized: the oil industry,” said Rich Stolz, Executive Director, OneAmerica. “Communities of color and low income communities are disproportionally impacted by climate disruption and air pollution; they’re also disproportionally impacted by inadequate access to transit. Pitting clean air and transit against each other is a social and environmental injustice.”

 “Pollution from transportation is the largest source of climate emissions and a significant factor in lung disease, like asthma,” said Carrie Nyssen, Vice President of Advocacy and Air Quality, American Lung Association of the Mountain Pacific. “Legislators should put the health of their constituents ahead of the oil industry and move forward on needed policy solutions.”

“This is a chance for our legislators to put partisan ideology aside and stand up for clean air and transit,” said Shannon Murphy, president of Washington Conversation Voters. “Just this week, Oregon stood strong in the face of this pressure – we hope their example serves as a call to action to the Washington legislature.”

American Lung Association of the Mountain Pacific, Climate Solutions, OneAmerica, Puget Sound Sage, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington Conservation Voters, and Washington Environmental Council all joined the call for the legislature to stand up for the interests of Washingtonians, not the oil industry. 

Contacts:
Kimberly Larson, kimberly@climatesolutions.org, 206.388.8674
Pavan Vangipuram, pavan@weareoneamerica.org, 206.452.8403
Carrie Nyssen, cnyssen@lungmtpacific.org, 360.921.1484
Kerry McHugh, kerry@wecprotects.org, 206.902.7555

Cantwell wants crude volatility answers, CBR opposition mounts

Gases in oil tank cars: How volatile, Cantwell wants to know

March 19, 2015 | By Joel Connelly    Seattle PI

Three oil trains pass through Seattle each day, headed to north Puget Sound refineries, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is prodding federal regulators to take a long, hard look at what will happen to their cargoes if a train derails.

Oil tanker cars derailed beneath the Magnolia Bridge in July 2014. The train was going only 5 mph.

Cantwell wants something called the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to probe the volatility of gases in tank cars hauling Bakken crude oil, and how that can contribute to the risk of explosions if cars derail.

“Oil production has increased faster than the infrastructure needed to transport it in the safest ways,” Cantwell told a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Thursday.

“And I want to be clear about this.  We currently do not have the regulations on the books to safely transport this product.  I am going to be working for further measures to make sure that we do get those standards in place.”.....     more here

‘Click:’ Beacon derailment is latest round of “bombtrain Russian roulette”

By John Lipscomb on March 19, 2015   Riverkeeper

A CSX freight train derailed just south of the Beacon Metro-North station early Saturday morning, according to a story published in the Journal News/Lohud.com

Photo/Sandy Saunders

Photo/ Sandy Saunders

Photo/Sandy Saunders

Photo/Sandy Saunders

The train was using Metro North’s tracks east of the Hudson to carry construction debris, though the majority of freight trains operating in the Hudson Valley travel on the CSX-owned tracks running along the river’s west bank, where the company hauls six million gallons or more of crude oil each day.....    more here

 

California opposition to oil-by-rail mounts

By Rory Carroll   SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, 2015       Reuters

  

A chorus of local governments across California opposed to crude oil trains grew louder this week in light of recent derailments, with a total of 14 cities and towns now trying to block the trains from running through their communities.

Five northern California cities - Berkeley, Richmond, Oakland, Martinez and Davis - have voiced their opposition to crude by rail in general. An additional nine communities specifically oppose a Phillips 66 project to enable its refinery in San Luis Obispo to unload crude-carrying trains.....   more here

Environmentalists play 'Whac-A-Mole' to stall crude-by-rail projects

Ellen M. Gilmer and Blake Sobczak, E&E Publishing     March 20, 2015

....the new reality of crude-by-rail traffic has environmentalists on edge. Oil train derailments in Illinois, West Virginia, North Dakota and other places have led to fires, spills and, in one case, lost lives. A 2013 crude-by-rail explosion in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killed 47 people, prompting regulators in the United States and Canada to review the inherently piecemeal rules governing crude-by-rail transportation. 

The federal government has authority over certain details, such as standards for tank cars used to haul crude. But most expansion plans and related environmental concerns are left to local agencies situated along oil routes. The result is a hodgepodge of permitting decisions by local authorities following varying state laws, while a team of environmental lawyers challenges expansion projects one by one.

"It's a little bit like Whac-A-Mole because there isn't a big permitting scheme," said Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles, who represented six environmental groups in the Skagit County appeal. "It makes it difficult and makes it frustrating for the public."....

.....The key to all of these challenges is Washington's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). Similar to the National Environmental Policy Act, SEPA requires government agencies to conduct a broad environmental impact statement for any major actions that may significantly affect the environment.

For projects in Skagit County, Grays Harbor and now Vancouver, state and local officials considering challenges look to SEPA to determine how rigorous environmental review must be, based on whether projects are expected to have major impacts. To Dufford, the Skagit examiner, the answer is plain.

"Unquestionably, the potential magnitude and duration of environmental and human harm from oil train operations in Northwest Washington could be very great," he wrote.....    more here

Recent Media around derailments/explosions

 A crew member walks near the scene of a train derailment near Mount Carbon, W.Va., Tuesday. A CSX train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed Monday in a snowstorm

Thanks to  Rebecca Ponzio, Oil Campaign Director of Washington Environmental Council for this excellent collection of links- many with videos:

Overall media –

·         Great overview -What you should know about oil trains in Washington  Seattle times 2/18/15

·         Forest Ethics’ Todd Paglia featured - Oil train fire burns for a second day in West Virginia  The Ed Show MSNBC video

·         Why People in Washington Are Freaked Out About the Oil Train That Exploded in West Virginia     The Stranger   02/16/15 

After Latest US Oil Train Disaster, Expert Says Tens of Millions Living Inside 'Blast Zone'-  Common Dreams   2/17/18

Alberta: CP Rail train derails in southwestern Alberta    CBC News 2/14/15

Ontario: Freight train carrying crude oil derails, catches fire in northern Ontario   CTV News 2/16/15
               Gogama train derailment: safety of shipping oil by rail questioned   CBC News 2/17/15

W. Virginia: Trains are carrying — and spilling — a record amount of oil    WaPo  2/17/15
     
      Columbia Riverkeepers’ Dan Serres is interviewed: Oil train derailment, fire in W. Virginia spark renewed local concerns  KATU.com 2/17/15
      
      Rebecca Ponzio speaks with KIRO 7: VIDEO: Oil train derailment sparks safety concerns

Tesoro Refinery, Torrence CA –
    Torrance ExxonMobil Refinery Rocked by Large Explosion; Earthquake-Like Shaking Reported    KTLA 5    2/18/15

Legislation – 
     In Our View: Oil Train Safety is Job 1- Legislature must toughen rules for producers, shippers to safeguard state      The Columbian  2/09/15
     
     Oil Transportation Safety Now bill Advances in State House-Urgency for bill increased with derailment and explosion of oil trains in West Virginia, Ontario   WEC