Residents of Casselton, N.D., are concerned about the crude-oil convoys that roll through their town, as what was once a stopgap becomes commonplace and safety standards lag.
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26 Sunday Jan 2014
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inResidents of Casselton, N.D., are concerned about the crude-oil convoys that roll through their town, as what was once a stopgap becomes commonplace and safety standards lag.
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25 Saturday Jan 2014
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in(Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) expressed growing concern Thursday that accidents involving oil trains can cause “major loss of life,” and recommended that they be rerouted where possible to avoid populated areas.
The safety board’s proposal, a direct response to last July’s oil train disaster in Quebec, reverberates in the Twin Cities, where 100-car crude oil trains have become a common occurrence.
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25 Saturday Jan 2014
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inBoard has issued a warning that "major loss of life" is likely to result from future accidents, urging the U.S. and Canadian governments to develop new safety rules. While many in the fossil fuel industry as well as supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline are using the critique of the safety of crude-by-rail as a reason to push for more oil pipelines, critics such as climate expert David Suzuki say both transportation methods pose significant risks. The NTSB’s recommendations, which were coordinated with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, included re-routing trains that carry hazardous materials, such as highly explosive North Dakota Bakken crude oil, to avoid populated and sensitive areas. "The NTSB is concerned that major loss of life, property damage and environmental consequences can occur when large volumes of crude oil or other flammable liquids are transported on single train involved in an accident," NTSB said.
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24 Friday Jan 2014
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inRailway cars carrying crude oil in Lac-Megantic, Quebec derail, causing explosions. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/THE CANADIAN PRESS, PAUL CHIASSON After investigating multiple fiery accidents involving crude oil trains that have derailed and crashed, The National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] is now calling for tougher regulations on the practice — including recommendations that those trains stay far away from urban population centers. “The NTSB is concerned that major loss of life, property damage and environmental consequences can occur when large volumes of crude oil or other flammable liquids are transported on a single train involved in an accident,” the agency said in its Thursday release. “Crude oil is problematic when released because it is flammable, and the risk is compounded because it is commonly shipped in large units.” Though the agency has not yet issued any new binding rules, it issued three recommendations to both the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The first would require expanded infrastructure to allow hazardous materials and crude oil to route around cities, rather than through them. The second would require agencies to audit rail carriers that carry petroleum products, making sure they have adequate response capabilities to address worst-case-scenarios. Under the third recommendation, agencies would also be required to audit rail carriers to make sure they are properly classifying hazardous materials. “If unit trains of flammable liquids are going to be part of our nation’s energy future, we need to make sure the hazardous materials classification is accurate, the route is well planned, and the tank cars are as robust as possible,” NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said in a statement. Calling its own announcement “unprecedented,” the NTSB said that safety regulations for trains carrying crude oil and other flammable materials need to catch up with the country’s recent crude-by-rail boom. Indeed, transporting crude oil by rail has boomed — both figuratively and literally — in the last year. Federal regulators recently reported that more oil has spilled from rail cars in 2013 than in the last four decades combined, which is in line with how much the practice itself has increased. North Dakota’s Bakken shale, for example, recently announced record oil production of almost 1 million barrels per day, or approximately 5 percent of total U.S. oil consumption — 90 percent of which is transported on rails, according to the state’s Mineral Resources Department. A million barrels a day is more than the capacity of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport 830,000 barrels per day. NTSB’s full set of recommendations can be found here. The NTSB’s announcement is likely welcome news for the hundreds of residents who live in Washington D.C.’s Navy Yard and Capitol Riverfront neighborhoods, who are currently fighting a proposal by CSX Corp. to run trains carrying crude oil and hazardous materials through an open trench in their neighborhood while the company reconstructs an old rail tunnel. Though the trains that would run through the neighborhood wouldn’t be full “unit trains” — meaning entire trains of oil or hazmats — CSX has confirmed that the trains can carry both hazmats and an “unlimited” amount of crude oil. CSX has confirmed that most of its oil comes from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, a type of oil which the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has warned could be especially flammable due to either particular properties of the oil or added chemicals from the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract it. The D.C. residents are calling for the trains to re-route around the city. The post ‘Risky’ Crude Oil Trains Should Stay Away From Cities, Federal Investigators Say appeared first on ThinkProgress.
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24 Friday Jan 2014
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inThe trains were stopped around 7:45 p.m. on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines, stranding thousands of commuters.
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23 Thursday Jan 2014
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inTwo CSX train cars, one carrying crude oil, lean over a bridge in Philadelphia on Jan. 20. CREDIT: NBC Philadelphia A tanker of crude oil and a boxcar of sand “nearly toppled” over a bridge in Philadelphia on Monday after a freight train owned by CSX Corp. derailed, according to local media reports. A total of seven cars from the 101-car freight train from Chicago derailed on the Schuylkill Arsenal Railroad Bridge at around 1 a.m. Monday, though the cause of the accident is not yet known. Six of the derailed cars contained crude oil, though no leaking was reported. A team of Coast Guard pollution responders was on scene, and CSX said it was working to clear the derailment “in a way that is safe and environmentally responsible.” As of Tuesday, workers were still attempting to get the leaning sand car and oil tanker off the bridge, using a crane to tilt the cars back into their upright positions. Representatives for CSX said the removal of all the cars could take up to two days. “This is unacceptable,” Philadelphia councilman Kenyatta Johnson told NBC News, demanding answers on what caused the accident and calling out CSX for a lack of transparency. “We’re going to be calling for hearings in the city of Philadelphia asking specifically for CSX to tell the city of Philadelphia how they are maintaining their bridges, and how they are maintaining their railways. They should assure the city of Philadelphia that their infrastructure is safe.” The practice of transporting crude oil by rail has boomed in the last year, with most of the uptick in oil shipments coming from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale. A top official at North Dakota’s Mineral Resources Department said last month that as much as 90 percent of the state’s crude will move by freight rail in 2014, just one day before announcing record oil production of almost 1 million barrels per day — or approximately 5 percent of total U.S. oil consumption. A million barrels a day is more than the capacity of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport 830,000 barrels per day. Most of the oil shipped by CSX is crude from the Bakken, as CSX Vice President of Public Safety Skip Elliott confirmed to Climate Progress last week. With that increase in oil shipped by rail, more than 1.15 million gallons of crude oil was spilled from rail cars in 2013, according to recent data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The amount spilled in 2013 is more than in the last four decades combined. PHMSA is also currently investigating whether oil from the Bakken shale is more explosive than other types of oil, possibly due to the fact that chemicals from the hydraulic fracturing process are mixing with the oil. Meanwhile, a proposal to let CSX run trains carrying crude oil from the Bakken through an open trench in southeast D.C. is stirring controversy, with residents citing accidents like the one in Philadelphia as reason to toss the proposal. The post Train Derailment In Philadelphia Leaves Crude Oil Car Dangling Over Schuylkill River appeared first on ThinkProgress.
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20 Monday Jan 2014
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in17 Friday Jan 2014
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inOfficials from the rail and petroleum industries agreed to examine quick ways to improve the safety of freight trains carrying crude oil after recent series of fiery accidents.
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07 Tuesday Jan 2014
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inAirlines canceled 4,400 flights on Monday, bringing the total to more than 17,000 over the last week, as brutal winter weather engulfed much of the country.
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05 Sunday Jan 2014
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inhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/RzEBUMkYhI0/140101175802.htm
Drivers eat, reach for the phone, text, or otherwise take their eyes off the road about 10 percent of the time they are behind the wheel, according to a study using video technology and in-vehicle sensors.
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