What Railway Workers Think about Oil Trains/ Big Oil Funds NW 'astroturf' groups

What Railway Workers Think about Oil Trains

Train engineers argue rail industry is putting health and safety at risk. 

Eric de Place  Sightline Institute  11/20/14

If you’re following the debate about the development of large-scale crude oil-by-rail sites in Washington, you should be paying close attention to what labor unions are saying.

Sightline has cataloged a range of serious concerns about the rise of oil trains— from lax tank car safety standards to industry intransigence to severe under-insurance—but the perspective of actual rail workers is even more troubling. In response to a recently published Washington Department of Ecology study on rail oil transport, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen submitted formal comments to the State that are frankly damning.The remarks illustrate an industry prioritizing profits and efficiency over health and safety and, by doing so, jeopardizing the very workers we rely on to  move 15,000-ton trains of hazardous goods through our communities safely.

Ecology will not be making the comments publicly available until March 2015, but with permission from the union I’m publishing portions of them here. What follows are direct excerpts from  Chairman Sharaim C. Allen’s letter to the Department of Ecology: ...... read article here
   
 also see:   Railroad Engineers Warnings Ignored In Inslee's Oil Report

Oil Interests Fund 'Astroturf' Groups In Washington, Oregon 

nw news network  By Austin Jenkins   11/18/14

Astroturfing is when interest groups run a campaign that’s designed to look like it’s grassroots in nature.

This PowerPoint slide shows the campaigns and coalitions that the Western States Petroleum Association has 'activated' to combat what it calls 'aggressive anti-oil initiatives in the West.'

A document obtained by public radio shows the oil industry is at the center of more than a dozen Astroturf groups in Washington, Oregon and California....  read more here