White House deferred to N. Dakota on oil train safety

[cali]

The Obama administration considered national standards to control explosive gas in oil trains last year but rejected the move, deciding instead to leave new rules to North Dakota, where much of the fuel originates.

Current and former administration officials told Reuters that they were unsure if they had the power to force the energy industry to drain volatile gas from crude oil originating in North Dakota’s fields. Instead, they opted to back North Dakota’s effort to remove the cocktail of explosive gas — known in the industry as “light ends” — and rely on the state to contain the risk. North Dakota’s regulations come into force next month.

The administration’s internal debate shows that concern about the risks associated with oil trains reached the upper level of the White House. But the administration balked at addressing the problem in new regulations governing crude oil trains that it is preparing to introduce this spring.

When Transportation Department and White House officials convened on this issue last summer, the administration decided to back North Dakota’s plan to limit vapor pressure — a measure that was just taking shape at the time. “The Department of Transportation supported North Dakota on treatment of crude oil in the field,” a White House official said in an interview.

But a growing number of safety advocates say relying on North Dakota is not sufficient to regulate a product that is hauled thousands of miles of track and across many state lines. “These trains are going all across the country, so it absolutely has to be the feds who are in charge,” said Karen Darch, mayor of Barrington, Ill., where several oil and ethanol trains pass through her town weekly.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2015/03/06/White-House-deferred-to-N-Dakota-on-oil-train-safety/stories/201503060236

[Jackpine Radical]

1. A friend of mine, who used to be a reporter on a paper in ND oil country

has come up with what I consider to be the most emotionally effective bumper-sticker term since Frank Luntz's "Death tax." She refers to these tanker trains as "bomb trains."

[cali]

2. really good article about the risks of oil trains disasters:

The rising risk of train explosions
Crude-oil rail shipments should be stopped until they are better regulated

America’s crash course in the virtually unregulated dangers of transporting crude oil by rail added a new chapter last month when a 109-car train hauling more than 3 million gallons of highly volatile Bakken crude derailed along the Kanawha River south of Charleston, W.Va., destroying a home and forcing hundreds of families to evacuate.

The fiery derailment sent 26 cars hurtling off the tracks, igniting a chain-reaction of explosions that sent fireballs the height of 30-story buildings roaring into the winter sky.

Ten hours later, emergency responders could still do little more than watch as walls of fire continued to cascade through the train cars, setting off explosions in up to 20 of the 30,000-gallon tankers. Fayette County residents compared them to atomic bombs going off.

As the number of oil trains and accidents continues to climb -- just yesterday an oil train derailed and caught fire in Galena, Ill. -- attention is focusing on what federal regulators acknowledge to be the increasing potential for the same kind of accident not in rural West Virginia or Illinois, but in the heart of Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, or along the banks of the Mississippi, the Hudson or the Monongahela.

Two new studies released in the past few weeks make clear the most recent derailments foreshadow the very real and escalating threat of a catastrophic oil-train explosion and spill. One of the risk-assessment studies, authored by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, projects that over the next two decades, 10 oil trains will derail every year, causing more than $4 billion in damage and potentially killing hundreds of people.

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http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2015/03/06/The-rising-risk-of-crude-oil-tanker-train-explosions/stories/201503060139

[ND-Dem]

3. what a travesty. the trains don't stay in nd; why does nd get to make the rules?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. The link doesn't seem to work.

But, it's good to see you back, Cali.

[Hekate]

6. First, let the state(s) prove it can't regulate effectively, then move to get federal laws

It's a theory. I hope the WH moves ahead on it now.

[Vinca]

7. One of these days a bomb train is going to explode in the middle of a big city.

Maybe - like so many other times - it will take a body count to get some action.