Oil-train wreck brings demands for more regulation

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ALAN SUDERMAN and MICHAEL FELBERBAUM

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — The latest in a string of fiery oil-train wrecks brought renewed demands Thursday that the Obama administration quickly tighten regulations governing the burgeoning practice of transporting highly combustible crude by rail.

With production booming in the Bakken oil field along the U.S. northern tier and in Canada, some experts say stronger rules to head off a catastrophe are long overdue.

In the latest crash, a CSX train carrying Bakken crude from North Dakota derailed Wednesday in downtown Lynchburg, sending three tanker cars into the James River and shooting flames and black smoke into the air. No one was injured, but the wreck prompted an evacuation and angered local residents and officials.

There have been eight other significant accidents in the U.S. and Canada in the past year involving trains hauling crude, and some of them caused considerable damage and deaths, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Bakken crude ignites more easily than other types.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140501/train_derailment-virginia-8a4b45b6bb.html

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In this mobile phone photo provided Charles Peters, people look on as smoke rises after several CSX tanker cars carrying crude oil derailed on Wednesday, April 30, 2014, in Lynchburg, Va. Authorities evacuated numerous buildings Wednesday after the derailment. (AP Photo/Charles Peters) MANDATORY CREDIT

[randys1]

1. MORE regulation? Are you kidding?

My god man, i bet you even want to work in a union shop and be paid decent wages and benefits, you must be a moron. (sarcasm)

Dont you know the free market will absolutely take care of this on it's own?

The same way Sterling the slumlord free market did, he wouldnt let certain people rent and then who he did rent to he overcharged and almost nothing was done to him WITH regulation, imagine what he could get away with none

If you are still a rightwinger you are an enemy of the human race

[demosincebirth]

5. Ditto

[Mr.Bill]

2. I shudder to think it's true, but

I have to wonder if these trains/tracks are being sabotaged by the forces working to approve pipelines.

[MicaelS]

6. Nope, derailments happen quite often.

You just don't hear about them because most of them just don't involve hazardous materials.

The oil is going to be moved. Either by train or pipeline. I worked 17 years as a freight trainman, and I prefer pipeline.

[valerief]

8. What would the Mafia do? That's always my guiding question when I wonder

about sabotage. So, yes, it's possible.

[geretogo]

3. Regulations are communist . Let the FREE MARKET rule . Profits first people second says David Koch .

[aquart]

4. Ask the Kochs for permission.

[valerief]

7. Freedom. Bootstraps. Tyranny. Liberty. Oppression. Taxation. Free market.

That's my RW argument against safety regulations.