US Orders Railroads to Disclose Oil Shipments
Calling the movement of crude oil by rail an 'imminent hazard' to the public, the Department of Transportation said on Wednesday that railroads would be required to notify local emergency responders whenever oil shipments traveled through their states.
The emergency order follows a spate of accidents that have raised concerns about the safety of trains that are carrying increasing amounts of crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota across the United States.
The order said that within 30 days, railroads carrying more than one million gallons of Bakken crude, the equivalent of about 35 tank cars, must provide state emergency commissions with detailed information about their shipments. Typically, oil trains carry about 100 cars or more.
This requirement includes disclosing the number of trains on a weekly basis, the counties they will be crossing and the specific routes the trains will be traveling.
Until now, railroads were under no obligation to disclose any of that information, and provided it under strict conditions only if it was asked for.
In addition, transportation regulators also said they would urge shippers to stop using older tank cars to carry crude oil, recommending that they use cars with 'the highest level of integrity in their fleet when transporting Bakken crude oil.'
The announcements come a week after an oil train derailed in Lynchburg, Va., spilling 30,000 gallons into the James River, erupting into flames and forcing the evacuation of 350 people.
It was the latest in a series of accidents that have caught industry regulators as well as railroads off guard. Last year an oil train exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people.
Wednesday's announcement had the starkest language yet about the dangers of crude oil transport from regulators, who have been criticized by lawmakers and safety advocates for being slow-footed.
The number of accidents, the order said, 'is startling, and the quantity of petroleum crude oil spilled as a result of those accidents is voluminous in comparison to past precedents.' Last month, regulators in Canada said they would require emergency plans from the railroads on responding to catastrophic explosions, and would quickly retire older models of tank cars commonly used to carry crude oil and ethanol.
Canada also took a decisive step to force shippers to use a stronger model of tank car within the next three years, effectively setting a new benchmark in the United States as well given the amount of traffic between the two countries. The new model is based on a standard developed by the railroad industry in 2011.
Communities around the nation have seen a surge in oil traffic in the past five years because of a boom in domestic oil production, particularly from the Bakken Shale region. This Bakken oil, which accounts for almost all the crude oil in the United States that is transported by train, is also more flammable than other types of crude oil and is more likely to explode in an accident.
Many states, including New York, Oregon and Minnesota, and cities like Seattle have urged railroads to provide more information about their shipments, something the industry has resisted so far invoking protections from state oversight afforded by federal commerce rules.
The railroad industry has traditionally been secretive about routing of its hazardous materials, citing security concerns. Earlier this year, railroads said they would treat oil as a hazardous material and agreed to speed limits, among other things, to increase safety.
But in its latest announcement, the Department of Transportation said the recent accidents 'have demonstrated the need for emergency action to address unsafe conditions or practices in the shipment of crude oil by rail.'
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