Shell's Washington rail project faces lengthy delay
Source: Reuters
Shell's Washington rail project faces lengthy delay
BY KRISTEN HAYS
HOUSTON Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:09pm EST
(Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell's proposed crude-by-rail project in Washington state has been put on hold pending environmental review, just days after a pair of oil train derailments caused huge fires in Canada and West Virginia.
A Skagit County Office of Land Use Hearings examiner ruled Shell's proposal must undergo a full environmental review, which can take a year or more.
Shell's competitors have been railing in U.S. crudes since 2012 to displace more costly imports and declining Alaskan oil. But a spate of derailments and crashes since 2013 has raised safety questions, particularly with North Dakota Bakken crude.
"Catastrophes have occurred elsewhere. No one doubts that such a thing could occur here," the examiner, Wick Dufford, wrote in the order issued Monday.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-crude-railway-shell-washington-idUSKBN0LS00J20150224
