U.S. Orders Tests on Rail Shipments of Oil

[elleng]

Federal regulators on Tuesday ordered shippers to properly test and classify crude oil from the productive Bakken region before loading it onto freight trains, a move meant to tighten regulatory standards after a spate of derailments and explosions that highlighted the hazards of carrying crude oil on rails.

The announcement from the office of secretary of transportation, Anthony Foxx, was the fourth emergency order or safety advisory issued in the last seven months related to the booming oil-by-rail trade.

The Transportation Department is under pressure to beef up the safety of these trains, a business that has soared in the last two years thanks to the growth of domestic oil production in North Dakota. Recent accidents have drawn attention to the risks of shipping large quantities of crude oil in unpressurized railcars. The danger was highlighted in July when a runaway train derailed in Quebec, killing 47 people. . .

The latest order directed shippers to label crude oil as Packing Group I or II hazardous material. These terms designate the strongest safety groups used by shippers and require the use of “more robust tank cars,” according to the department.

In practical terms, the order will help ensure that emergency responders are fully aware of the content of the tank cars in the event of a crash or derailment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/business/us-orders-tests-on-oil-shipments.html?hp&_r=0

[nykym]

1. First it needs to be reclassified

“A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund,” writes Ryan Koronowski at Climate Progress. “Other conventional crude producers pay 8 cents a barrel to ensure the fund has resources to help clean up some of the 54,000 barrels of pipeline oil that spilled 364 times last year.”
Link to rest of article:
http://grist.org/news/good-news-arkansas-tar-sands-oil-isnt-oil-oil/