Maine rail cargo secrecy law bypassed public access, safety defenses
Source: Bangor Daily News
After a runaway oil train killed 47 people in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, just miles from the Maine border in 2013, Mainers demanded to know more about the state’s railways.
How much oil was moving through Maine? Which companies shipped it and along what routes? Was the government doing enough to keep communities safe?
At about the same time, the rail industry began its own campaign to keep much of that information secret, according to interviews and correspondence with regulators.
Those efforts paid off last year when state officials — who for years had reported the volumes of monthly crude oil shipments — stopped making them public in October.
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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2016/02/10/politics/maine-rail-cargo-secrecy-law-bypassed-public-access-safety-defenses/
ugh
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thanks.
Oil Train Safety. Links to News Articles, Industry Groups, Regulatory Agencies. Updated 02-10-2016
In reality, the cargo is not much of a secret. All the cars are placarded, and anyone with Radio Shack's cheapest analog scanner - or the Scanner 5.0 app for iPhone and Android mobile devices - will know when the trains are running. The information is also available at any number of railfan sites.
A warning placard on a tank car carrying crude oil near Trenton, N.D. Oil from the Bakken region is particularly flammable and prone to explosion.
