May 6, 2015:
Heimdal, North Dakota has been evacuated. No injuries or fatalities to people. Looking at the black plumes we can see definite injury to the planet which has reached 400 ppm carbon today. In order to survive we have to keep that under 350 ppm. So the 6th extinction marches on.
How long are the people of North America going to allow these oil train accidents to continue? Above all, when are we going to insist on a limit to their size and frequency? They are one mile long and up to 100 - 120 cars passing through cities and towns across the continent. Train tracks originally meant to connect cities now go through heavily populated areas. They also go along rivers so that when there is a derailment our rivers are endangered by the spills. New regulations are about prevention and clean up response but what about regulations limiting the permits and the size of these trains?
What are governments doing about oil train safety?
Senators Introduce Legislation After Series Of Oil Train Accidents
The legislation would also authorize more funding to train first responders, buy equipment to deal with derailments and conduct rail inspections. It also calls for companies to have spill-response plans that are specific to trains carrying oil products.
The environmental group the Center for Biological Diversity praised the measure, but said it could go further. “It’s painfully clear something needs to be done to protect people and the environment from the mounting dangers of these oil trains, and this bill is an important step in the right direction,” said Jared Margolis, an attorney with the group. “Our view is that oil trains should be stopped because of the inherent dangers to the public and wildlife, and their role in climate disruption. Although this bill doesn’t go that far, it provides important protections that would help limit the risks to people and the environment from oil train derailments."
The U.S. Is Getting Serious About Oil Train Explosions. Here’s How It Plans To Stop Them.
[Dated May 4, 2015, too late for the accident in Heimdal, ND]
Foxx presented the new safety standards alongside Canada’s Minister of Transport, Lisa Raitt, since the regulations were coordinated with Canada. Raitt said that together the two countries had “developed a harmonized solution for North America’s tank car fleet.”
Many of the oil trains, which can total up to 120 cars, originate from the Bakken oil fields, located primarily in North Dakota but stretching into Montana and up towards the Canadian border. Total crude-by-rail in the U.S. and Canada averaged more than one million barrels of oil per day in 2014, up from 55,000 bpd in 2010, with the large majority of this oil coming from the Bakken region. Trains depart from these fields carrying oil to ports and refineries, such as those found along the Pacific Northwest coastline.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board claims oil trains make the tracks more susecptible to failure.
CN Rail derailment numbers soared before recent crashes
Trains operated by CN in Canada derailed along main lines 57 times in 2014, up 73 percent from 33 in 2013 and well above a 2009-2013 average of 39 accidents per year. On CN’s full 21,000 mile (33,800 km) network, which also includes the Midwestern and southern United States, freight carloads rose 8 percent last year.
And why the secrecy?
In 2014, the US Department of Transportation required that state agencies keep secret the information on frequency, volume, routing and destination of Bakken crude oil shipments by rail.