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Tar Sands by Rail Disasters: The Latest Wave in the Bomb Train Assault
Tar Sands by Rail Disasters: The Latest Wave in the Bomb Train Assault
With the first crash and explosion of aunit train of tar sands oil in Canada in February, we learned that the conventional wisdom among people covering the oil-by-rail industry regarding the flammability of tar sands oil has been dead wrong. A second derailment and explosion on March 7th involved synbit, which is a form of bitumen diluted with synthetic crude oil.
While there are many examples of this mischaracterization of the dangers of moving tar sands by rail that can be found in the press, here at DeSmogBlog we didn’t have to look far. In an article last year about how to make Bakken crude less dangerous we wrote that the government had plans to allow tar sands oil to be transported in the unsafe DOT-111 rail tank cars “because it is not explosive.”
While raw bitumen from the Alberta tar sands is not volatile or highly flammable, when it is diluted with natural gas condensate to form a mixture known as dilbit,which is typically done to make it easier to transport, it appears that it can be as dangerous as the Bakken crude that has now been proven to be highly flammable and explosive in multiple train derailments.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Exploding Trains, No New Regulations, Record Industry Profits: The Oil-by-Rail Story
Exploding Trains, No New Regulations, Record Industry Profits: The Oil-by-Rail Story
A month ago there was a close call for the oil-by-rail industry. As part of the Cromnibus bill that President Obama signed in December, new oil-by-rail regulations were supposed to be finalized and implemented by regulators by January 15th.
Two days before that deadline, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the agency responsible for new regulations, posted new documents on their website related to recent meetings between PHMSA and various oil and rail industry lobbyists.
They did not issue a press release about these meetings, unlike the meetings a year ago when the industry volunteered to try improving its safety record and there was plenty of publicity.
And then it was announced that new regulations would once again be delayed, this time until May 2015.
Since that delay an ethanol train has derailed resulting in burning rail cars and ethanol spilling into the Mississippi River. An oil train derailed and caught fire in Gogama, Canada. And another oil train of Bakken crude oil derailed, exploded, andleaked oil into the Kanawha River near Mount Carbon, West Virginia.
Also, since the announced delay of regulations there have been two congressional hearings on this issue. In one, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was adamant that the proposed new regulations were “unattainable” and in the next Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) lectured the hearing attendees on how it was necessary for everyone to be“singing the same tune” so the American public didn’t get the “misperception” that the oil-by-rail industry isn’t safe.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Oil-by-Rail Reality: Watch What Industry Does, Not What They Say
Oil-by-Rail Reality: Watch What Industry Does, Not What They Say
“In the past month, there have been numerous public relations efforts suggesting that much is being done to improve oil by rail safety. Unfortunately, it seems these efforts will not involve much more than press releases and hollow promises.”
Those words were first published on DeSmogBlog in March of last year in an article titled Why Nothing Will Happen On Oil by Rail Safety.
In that article, one particular public relations effort was highlighted:
“One of the more popular talking points in the recent PR effort was that BNSF, the railroad that is the largest transporter of oil by rail, had volunteered to buy 5,000 new rail tank cars that exceed any existing safety standard.”
This statement was referring to articles such as the one in the Wall Street Journallast February stating, “BNSF Railway said it plans to buy as many as 5,000 new tank cars to transport crude oil, an unusual move that marks the latest effort by the rail industry to improve safety after a spate of accidents.” Similar articles appeared in Reuters (“Exclusive: BNSF to move into tank car ownership with safer oil fleet”) and CNBC.
It was a clear message. The rail industry was not waiting on new regulations to improve safety and would take steps immediately to make the movement of oil by rail safer. Tough to argue with that, right?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How $40 oil would impact Canada’s provinces
How $40 oil would impact Canada’s provinces
What does Canada’s economy look like with oil prices at $40 a barrel? Certainly it won’t be the energy superpower envisioned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
If $40 a barrel still seems a ways off, consider that the benchmark price for oil sands crude is already trading in that price range. What’s more, if production from high cost sources isn’t withdrawn from an oversupplied market, oil prices may soon be trading even lower.
The first thing Canadians should recognize about the new world order for oil prices is that—contrary to what we’re being told by our federal government—the economy is no longer in dire need of any new pipelines. For that matter, it can live without the new rail terminals being built to move oil as well. Yesterday’s transportation bottlenecks aren’t relevant in today’s marketplace.
At current prices there won’t be any massive expansion of oil sands production because those projects, which would produce some of the world’s most expensive crude, no longer make economic sense.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
