Crude-by-railFor decades critics of the oil industry have argued that the industry has a latent disregard for the safety of its workers and the communities in which it operates.

The spectacular disasters we have witnessed over the years ā€“ from Piper Alpha, to Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon ā€“ often hide the routine spills and accidents that never make the news.

But now we have a new threat to communities across North America and that comes from crude-by-rail trains.

In the last month we have witnessed a spate of accidents that has given a new urgency to the debate over the safety of moving millions of tonnes of volatile crude around North Americaā€™s creaking rail network.

As my colleague Lorne Stockman wrote last week: ā€œThe five major oil train derailments and explosions that occurred less than a month apart in the U.S. and Canada recently has refocused attention on the reckless practice of moving millions of gallons of crude oil at a time on a train through the continentā€™s communities.ā€

Stockman added: ā€œThe only sensible and safe position on crude-by-rail is clear. We need an immediate moratorium on crude-by-rail shipments in North America. This needs to stop now.ā€

You would have thought that the oil industry would be reacting fast to the deteriorating safety situation by doing everything in its power to reassure communities from the barren Bakken shale fields to the affluent coastal communities that Americaā€™s railways are safe.

But you would be wrong. Despite the spate of recent accidents, the oil industry is lobbying against further safety measures.

The build-up of high vapor pressure has been identified as a possible factor in explosions in the recent crude-by-rail train derailments in Illinois and West Virginia.

For a while now US federal officials have been warning that crude from North Dakota’s Bakken shale oilfields contains a cocktail of explosive gas, which is known as ‘light ends.’

Tomorrow is the deadline for new regulations to cap vapor pressure in BakkenĀ crude oil transported by rail.

According to Reuters the new rules, ā€œaim to contain dangers by spot-checking the vapor pressure of crude before loading and capping it at 13.7 pounds per square inch (psi) – about normal atmospheric conditions.ā€

Many experts are warning that the new rules are actually inadequate as they fail to take into consideration how Bakken crude behaves in transit, as gas levels can increase during transportation.

This raises ā€œdoubts about whether the state’s much-anticipated rules will make oil train shipments saferā€, argues Reuters. Indeed, checks have found that vapor pressure can increase from 9 psi to over 30 psi during transit, over twice the new limit.

The US National Transportation Safety Board, under pressure to make crude-by-rail shipments safer after a string of accidents, is also calling for a federal standard for “setting vapor pressure thresholds”.

However, the main oil industry lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute (API), is lobbying against new standards.

Reuters reports how the API ā€œis lobbying lawmakers to resist federal vapor pressure benchmarks and last week urged lawmakers to oppose ā€˜a national volatility standard.ā€™ā€ The API is arguing that this would add unnecessary expense to carrying crude by rail.

What this shows is that once again the oil industry is putting profits before people, and showing a deeply callous disregard for the safety of communities across North America who are close to railways.

And although we would expect the industry to be sociopathic, as it always has been and always will be, it also seems that the regulator is incapable of making crude by rail safe too.

So that is why we need a moratorium as soon as possible, before we have another accident.

 

 

3 Comments

  • Bit one sided a Andy? What’s your solution, sunlight, pixie dust and regulators? The answer is density. Reduce human density and most of the problems go away. Try to fix it through massive government and regulation and the problems will simply grow as will the misery and poverty and human spiritual bankruptcy. See history 101 and note the provisions in Agenda 21. Further, you should reference the history of big government social justice. It’s replete with success. Or if you’re short on time and don’t really have the energy for all that thinkin, just pick up a copy of animal farm by George Orwell. Note the pigs. Or if audio is your thing Temples of Syrinx by Rush ( 2112 side A ), or Sparks of the tempest by Kansas.

    We’ve taken care of everything
    The words you read the songs you sing the pictures that give pleasure to your eye. It’s one for all and all for one we work together till it’s done never need to wonder how or why…

    Read and understand at least the preamble to Agenda 21. The one document to control them all…

    Have a nice day,
    Sincerely,
    Old White Dude

  • Censorship too… Wow surprise surprise surprise! College campus in America are the home of socialist and communist thought. These are places where educators have tenure so that they can speak without fear of reprisal yet many colleges have instituted free speech zones in an effort to limit the exploration of ideas contrary to the left wing whack job stuff they are teaching kids. Freedom is always the first to go whenever the leftys show up.

  • I donā€™t know why we arenā€™t shipping bitumen in a solid form. CanaPux is one example. They donā€™t explode and they float.

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