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When it comes to the rules regarding oil trains in America, many regulations that would improve safety have yet to be written. One reason is that, despite the multiple oil train crashes resulting in massive explosions in the past several years, there have been no fatalities in America.
Although 47 people did die in the Lac-Megantic oil train crash just north of the Maine border in Canada, that apparently isn’t enough to change the tradition of the rail industry fighting any regulations that might improve public safety.
An investigation by the Federal Railroad Administration(FRA) into the Mount Carbon oil train derailment concluded that the cause of the accident was a broken rail. At that time, Sarah Feinberg, the FRA’s acting administrator, noted that, “Broken rail is one of the leading causes of accidents.”
So what are the regulations regarding rails becoming worn and increasing the risk of derailments? There are none.
As the Associated Press (AP) reported in December, efforts to improve safety via rail wear regulations were stopped by the rail industry in 2013 in favor of “voluntary” safety measures.
Richard Inclima, head of the union representing rail inspectors, summed up the reality of what happened, “There was certainly a lot of pushback and a lot of political pressure put on FRA not to adopt regulations for rail wear. The industry doesn’t want to be regulated. That’s no secret.”
Following the Mount Carbon accident, the FRA is making plans to once again try for rail wear regulations.
FRA confirmed to DeSmog,“The Federal Railroad Administration has started its internal process to move forward with a rule to establish rail wear standards.”
Of course, the industry will once again flex its lobbying muscle to create “a lot of pushback and a lot of political pressure.” And these rulemaking processes take years. So, there is a well-established known risk and leading contributor to derailments — and still no regulations while the bomb trains roll on — because the industry doesn’t want them.
So corporations, once again putting profits over safety.
Not surprising.
The pipeline is less than 10 years old, not even completed yet and already 3 spills, on just that one pipeline.
Pipelines are cheaper and carry more oil and natural gas than rail cars but their spills are larger and go undetected for longer periods of time.
Not against pipelines at all but the route would ruin the water supply for millions of people.
A derailing oil train could do the same but the reaction time would be quicker.
