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Oil Train Derailments Reaching Crisis Point
Submitted by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,
On February 13 a Norfolk Southern Railway train bound for New Jersey derailed in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. About 3,500 to 4,500 gallons of crude oil spilled, although miraculously it somehow didn’t leak into nearby water supplies. The Federal Railroad Administration announced that it will investigate the crash. The episode is merely the latest in a series of derailments and will raise pressure on federal regulators to issue new safety rules.
It is hard to imagine the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) not taking action soon as the problem has become too common to ignore. Between 1975 and 2010 only 800,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from rail tankers. But in 2013 alone, over 1.15 million gallons of oil spilled. That is because shipping oil by rail has skyrocketed from fewer than 10,000 carloads in 2009 to more than 400,000 in 2013.
With hundred-car trains rolling out from the Bakken in every direction – west to Washington state and Los Angeles, south to Gulf Coast refiners, north to Canada, and east to refineries in New Jersey – towns and cities are calling for greater scrutiny, but are powerless to take matters into their own hands as rail safety is regulated at the federal level.
The NTSB and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada issued joint recommendations on January 23 that call for treating crude oil like other toxic materials. These came on the heels of fiery crash in North Dakota in late December 2013. The recommendations call on rail companies to use reinforced rail cars, enhanced safety procedures, and alternative routes that avoid populated cities and towns. But, the recommendations are not binding – and action on things like rail design safety would need to come from another agency, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Regulators have said that they need more time to review rail designs and that they do not plan on publishing new rules within the next year. But, the issue isn’t going away. CSX, a major rail company, projects that oil shipped by rail will increase by 50% in 2014.
One of the major problems is that rail companies are using DOT-111 rail cars, which are older models used to carry agricultural products. These models have thinner walls that can puncture when they derail. This is particularly important because crude from the Bakken is more flammable than other types of oil. The Association of American Railroads issued new standards for manufacturers for cars built after 2011, which require thicker shells that are resistant to puncturing. But, the vast majority of railcars in use were constructed before this standard.
The big question is whether or not PHMSA will require and accelerate the phase out of DOT-111 cars, making reinforced cars mandatory. Last summer, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wrote a letter to PHMSA, calling on them to do just that. PHMSA has thus far been unwilling to act, prompting North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple to press them for an interim standard until they come out with something more concrete in 2015. And Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both from Oregon, held a meeting with rail executives to push them on safety. Despite the pressure from a few lone politicians, the government has been slow to act and the rail industry has resisted any regulation, arguing it would cost more than $1 billion.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on rail safety on February 26, an indication that after multiple train derailments and explosions, the issue is finally getting greater attention on Capitol Hill.
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Regulation, anyone? No?
Perhaps the Government can nationalize Warren Buffett, seize his assets and get the Taggert Express running on time and safely. After all, that's what Mussolini did....
You know, I always wondered why Obama loved House of Cards. I then noticed in Season 2 they introduced a seasoned old utility oligarch as his personal best friend. This folksy old man, living in the back woods of a folksy state was directing the first 4 years of Executive office via a 'secure line' to the President.
Some food for thought: The West Wing's first 3 seasons were struggling so on occasion the scripts were solicited and marked up by old Clinton staffers. Anyone want to take the short side of a bet that the Hill has zero creative input into the current season of "house of cards" ?
Something to ponder if one ever has the opportunity to order some Ribs at 10 am (pre-vote) at Madam's Organ Blues Bar.
Sounds like the Jackals are puting in a vote for Keystone XL. Expect more of these "Accidents" nutil Keystone XL is set in stone.
Pipelines are so unsafe.....what we need is rail transport - Warren Buffett
Ya got that crap right - Chuck Munger
Amazing all these derailments happening as the State Dept debates the Oil Pipeline from Canada to the US. AMAZING coincidence! Sabotage anyone?
The pipeline will be approved soon Buffet bought into the pipeline in December the fix is in!
snip
He also has publicly endorsed the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Alberta to refineries in the southern U.S.
deleted
Laws of men just lead to bribery. Next.
Breaking
Railroad police buy 1 billion hollowpoints and 500 armored vehicles
We're gonna need thousands more TSA 'officers' to keep us safe from train derailments. Think of all the good jobs!/s
Homeland Security to Track License Plates on all USA Autos to Keep Railraods Safe
Just today the TSA announced that they will now track all LICENSE PLATES on all car's to keep the trains safe.
The largest database on earth of vehicles, motorbikes, bicycles, and all kids toys that enable human movement will be tracked and catalogued.
Pogosticks are said to be the major tool used for juvenile derailment of trains. Register Pogosticks and license them with TSA, and Homeland Secrutiy.
Didn't Greenspan - great "libertarian" - say the banks could regulate themselves?
Don't the commies and other big gov types on here think the PRIVATE railroads know what's best and don't need some Railcrat from DC telling them how to run their trains.
Let's give Capitalism a chance, shall we!
Buffet bought the railroads. Prob just him pulling a tesla and tricking .gov into subsidizing more business ventures
He only bought one. There are 3 other bigs ones, and few smaller ones still floating round as public companies.
I guess it was coincendental that after democrat buffett bought the railroads the Keystone Pipeline has been stonewalled?
"The Commission… is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, at the same time that that supervision is almost entirely nominal. Further, the older such a commission gets to be, the more inclined it will be found to take the business and railroad view of things.… The part of wisdom is not to destroy the Commission, but to utilize it"
In the US, the railroads and regulatory capture go back well over a hundred years. Back then the Robber Barrons didn't give a shit about any D/R false dichotomy, and they still don't.
(the full quote is better but time is short today so the wiki version will have to do)
Just BNSF.
Burlington Northern
@Notarealamerican I take it you are a big government type. Do you sit around dreaming up rules to keep more and more people jumping to your tune? Why not try talking to people instead? Why not try caring a little bit? It might change your life.
Only one rule is necessary. Do not steal.
\facepalm....
I only wish that would be as simple as that...
Therefore we need bureaucracies......as big as we can get them.
Are you saying we need monopolies as big as we can get them?
Your logic and posts have been on a serious downhill slide of late...
So , doesn't this sound like Atlas Shrugged. Everything these days is like a bad Ayn Rand novel
There's a good Ayn Rand novel?
You haven't read the "The Mighty Libertarian Flaming Sword of Justice: Slaying the Evil Socialists"?
One of her best, the action... the sex... the ideology... it's all there.
I'll wait for the movie.
The movie is already out, and full of Sex.
Download the movie from piratebay.se, just search for 'Ayn Rand', damn good movie 2-volume set, so make sure to download both parts.
Ton's of train derailments and fires in the movie, with the sex.
Of course at the end everyone end's up in 'Galt Gulch', so its a happily ever after story to boot.
Is that anything like a Ghastly Gully? Or is it more like a Jade Gate?
Stay obsequious my friend.
That word.
You're using it incorrectly.
Not even if I throw a sarc in there?
As long as Gary Cooper aint in it.
I find her writing very useful in daily life. To wipe my ass with. That witch's writings deserve a place in everyone's out house. Not entirely useless screed.
Cool! I like to use the Communist Manifesto for the same thing. When that runs out I will move to the works of Keynes.
"Dreams of My Father" is more absorbing.
I thought the Unions bought the last copies of that.
its almost like this article is saying that they should create some sort of pipeline to transport this oil rateher than those dangerous railroad cars.
You mean there's an agenda? An ulterior motive? Fascinating!
Articles like this are the latest propaganda to sooth the lefts globull warming crowd.
There is a leftist billionaire battle taking place Tom Steyer vs. The Bailed Out Buffoon
Its OK, three "patriots" in Nebraska sued the governor and found some filth in robe to declare that some obscure commission had the sole authority to permit an oil pipeline.
" A Nebraska judge has declared unconstitutional a 2012 law that gave the governor and state environmental regulators the authority to approve oil pipeline routes," Its amazing, I thought that state legislatures had the right to you know, enact laws regarding commerce and delegate authority to speficific agencies of their choice.
Here is an observation, I live in an area crisscrossed by underground oil and gas pipelines, they lay the pipe and two years later you cant even tell the ground was dug up.
Good old uncle warren, who is gonna replace that wonderful generous man when he heads to the promissed land.
Nebraska.....home of the Cornhusker kickback.
....and pretty damn proud about it too.
865,000 gallons (Tesoro Logistics PIPELINE spill, North Dakota, 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/us/oil-spill-in-north-dakota-raises-de...
210,000 gallons (Exxon oil PIPELINE spill, Arkansas,2013)
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115624/exxon-oil-spill-arkansas-2013-...
865,000 + 210,000 = 1,075,000.
OMG, pipelines are SO much safer.
Good post...
The pipeline industry is very proud of only loosing 0.1%....
Add it up...
------
Railroad cars on the other hand, when they go boom reflect the hidden cost much more clearly...
The Alaska pipeline is aging rapidly. And with the perma frost the pilings were sunk into melting in the heat waves, it is especially vulnerable now to cracks and leaks. Amazing engineering though, when up there a few years back we hiked a few sections of it. A company man told us that during the year locals use guns to shoot the pipeline, and he even found some arrows sticking out of it! According to him, most rifle shots are harmless, there is an outer metal coating and a large area of insulation before the pipe itself is hit.
Perma frost took a huge hit this winter in the long running heat wave with temperatures from 5-7 degrees above normal, running up to as high as 40+ degrees above normal. The pipeline will being to sink and stress the joints this summer. Though the media nd industry are very good at covering up any leaks. Media is silent due to political pressure.
Uber Stupid, nice level of exageration, try reading the story next time "State officials, who responded to the spill after being notified by Tesoro, said the oil posed no immediate environmental risk. "
And this compares how to an entire town being incinerated along with all of the toxic smoke?
The other story was an exageration as well "he 95,000-barrel-per-day pipeline, which has been shut since March after spilling about 5,000 barrels of Canadian crude in Mayflower, Arkansas," and involved a 70 year old pipeline. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/01/us-usa-pipeline-exxon-idUSBRE9...
If you are going to post at least dont post worthless lies, A-hole. You liberals are so easy to figure out, you have nothing so you just make up stupid lies to support your dumb ideas.
I hope that Exxon made those Ark. homeowners whole...
Somehow I doubt it...
Actually, there is little to no difference between the two forms of transportation for the amount of oil spilled.
1.15 million gallons spilled with evil choo choo trains
1.075 million gallons spilled with double plus good pipelines.
Of course, no oil pipeline went explodey in a town, unlike that recent train wreck, but there was that natural gas pipeline explosion in Canada recently, and fortunately, no one was hurt.
What you are failing to mention when talking about safety is the difference in in volume transported for those same roughly million GALLONS.
In the us last year there were over 8000 billion barrel miles of petroleum products transported, the majority being refined products. Of those roughly 1813 billion barrel miles were crude.
Rail shipments were 15.25 billion barrel miles. The railways petioning support always use barrels handled.... But majority of shipments are relatively short versus pipeline routes.
While it may appear on the surface that they are roughly the same... Pipelines transport oil much farther and higher quantities. To purpose trail as a viable solution is just not rational.
Disclosure... I am just an engineer for a consumer products company and have no affiliation with a railway or pipeline.company. Just wanted to find out as much as I could on the issue.
Heres the catch though, Keystone is just bad deal for average joe for a litany of reasons. Higher domestic prices for starters, few jobs for another.. Moreover, giving a massive tax break tor refiners seals the deal...
Warren Buffet...King of the gov't dole
Didn't Warren Buffett cause this?
What's with the Warren Buffett fetish?
He's channeling Becky Quick...
What are the odds something will be done about this? About the same odds O'idiot is going to okay the keystone pipeline. Warren's money blocking both efforts I'm sure. News sites can't talk about that shit, but hey climage change aka global warming is real!!!!Never has there been a larger collection of ass-clowns than those in Washington right now.
Warren Buffet says the trains will run!
Warren Buffet says the trains will run!
I'm one of the biggest conspiracy nuts on here.......because there's lot's of conspiracies.......but my own experiences tell me this is the railroads fault for not updating infrastructure.
I personally witnessed close to a half dozen derailmens over the same set of tracks covering only a 30 mile length over the course of about 20 years.
Then when the big floods came(what year was that?? I cant recall) they literally washed these tracks out. Afterwards these tracks were all rebuilt. Since that was done there hasn't been 1 derailment.
Oh we can't dare spend these billions on those damn tracks!!!! And if we can't get tax money to do it than so be it!
Greedy rich assholes are turning the planet into one huge shitpit. It's never enough, they want it all. I'd imagine not being able to get off this planet and conquer other worlds we haven't discovered yet probably has half of these goons on prozac.
Oh and of course it didn't get in the water, drink up slaves and don't forget to turn on the sink faucet if you want to lite your cigarette!
They are idiots if they do not maintain the rails. It is not economical to have trains and cargo derailing. I seriously doubt there is a successful business plan for railroads that includes lots of derailments.
It's all about the money the rail road cars need retrofitting and the tracks need work but that is estimated to cost $5 plus billion and you wouldn't expect the likes of warren buffet to pay that now would you?
If they got a government subsidy then they would fix them otherwise they probably look at it like Ford did with the exploding Pinto's cheaper to pay off some dead peoples families than to fix the problem.
Well, I would meet you halfway in that most any business will engage in "rent seeking" trying to get government funds. However, I really do not believe train wrecks are a part of the plan.
If only life was that simple.
Freight railroad tracks are probably the best maintained infrastructure we have in this country and it is all maintained with private funds. I would put mainline track up against any US DOT maintained road or bridge any day. Track inspectors do two inspections of every inch of mainline track a week. They also do ultrasound testing twice a year and the track is replaced entirely once every six years in many high traffic areas.
Please don't talk like the railroads aren't spending money on track infrastructure, in addition they are spending billions of dollars on government regulated upgrades like Positive Train Control.
Yes, but that doesn't cover operator error (the leading cause of mishaps) or railcar maintenaince...
All path are fraught with peril...
I'm talking about my own personal experience. I don't care what you say...........I seen it. Like up close and personal.
And for another comment.......ever hear the phrase 'wont spend a dime to save a dollar"?
In the case I witnessed they made plenty of repairs during the derailment years. The problem was the foundation mostly. You can do all the house repairs you want but if your house is sinking then good luck.
They had plenty of excuses. Fact of the matter years later after the floods when they were FORCED to 'completely' rebuild it there has been zero problems.
And..................if things were so great as you say this article wouldn't be on here.
When they build the pipeline, they should build it along I-80, just north of there.
It'll be good for jobs!
*KEYSTONE XL - the more train derailments, the better the prospects for getting the pipeline built.
Charles of Arabia: Prince stars in the Saudi dance of the swords
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2562627/Charles-Arabia-Prince-st...
Didn't I read about this exact same story in Atlas SHrugged?
Buffet has Barry bought off on no new pipelines because Buffet's trains lose business.
So guess what Warren - your enemies are blowing up your fucking trains and the insurance companies you own are paying for it.
Fuck you Warren.
You fucking pawn Barry - put the pipelines through and stop trying to import through deep-sea offshore with Soros and Petrbras (Brazil) - you fucking pawn Barry!!!!!
We don't hear about derailments of trains carrying containers of Chinese products, or grain etc. The trains are being sabotaged by enviroMENTAL nazis who h-a-t-e fossil fuels.
Crisis? Well, as one (or more) corrupt scheming politicians have said: never let a good crisis go to waste!
Interestingly, last night I was cruising the usajobs.com website to see what was available out there. The govt is currently looking for experts in pipeline construction to assist with writing technical documents at the GS15 level.
They're also looking for railroad accident investigators, so get crackin'!
Lost in all this is that Keystone is aimed at diesel exports and not satisfying domestic demand...
Tar sands oil would only replace other imports destined for re-export after refining... There are great tax free profits to be had from exporting diesel refined from high margin (and assay) crude inputs in FTZ zones...
Once again, privatize the profits and socialize the risks. Joe Sixpack will take it in the can yet again....
Hell just google Keystone Valero FTZ 10-Q....
At least the Choo-Choos provide real permanent jobs at home, unlike the temporary pipeline construction jobs...
And if a bunch of new rail cars have to be built, even more jobs domestically... After all that pipeline will be likely made with cheaper chinese steel...