We are closing out the “Path to Progress” series for this year with a potential bright spot. In its Fall 2014 Regulatory Agenda, the Obama Administration set a target date of March 2015 for finalizing new rules designed to prevent and minimize the consequences of derailments in trains carrying crude oil and other highly hazardous materials. If the Department of Transportation is able to accomplish that feat, it would beat even our own proposed schedule—a welcome achievement. We are looking forward to seeing that entry on our arrivals board turn over to “arrived.”
We’re looking forward to it because crude shipments by rail continue to expand, and millions of us are living in a blast zone.
As our 13 Essential Regulatory Actions explains, domestic crude production is booming (at least for now) because of this administration’s regulatory acquiescence to—and the oil industry’s unbridled advances in—fracking and horizontal drilling. In North Dakota and elsewhere, oil companies are simply sucking so much oil out of the ground that the producers are looking for any possible way to transport it to refineries. One of the non-conventional methods is to load the crude oil on trains. But because the shipments originate in shale formations that are far removed from refineries, the risks of derailment are significant.
Not at all surprisingly, both rail shipments and derailments of crude of have spiked. Shipments have gone from 9,500 rail-carloads in 2008 to 415,000 rail-carloads in 2013, a more than 4,000 percent jump. Likewise, more oil spilled from trains in 2013 than in the four previous decades combined. The worst such recent derailment was in July 2013, in a small Quebec town called Lac-Mégantic. More than 1 million gallons of crude spilled and ignited almost immediately, killing 47 people and forcing 2,000 more from their homes. A collision in North Dakota spilled 400,000 gallons of crude in December of that same year. The resulting fireball forced 1,400 people from their homes.
The administration’s proposed rules would not only reduce the risks of derailment by encouraging risk-based routing that takes into account the hazardousness of the cargo, track conditions, and other factors, but also reduce the consequences of derailment by encouraging the use of sturdier tank cars. The faster these requirements take effect, the better, so we were encouraged to see the accelerated schedule for finalizing the rules.
Of course, the date by which shipping and railroad companies must implement the new requirements is what really matters. Under the DOT’s proposal, which would grandfather in any tanker cars built before 2017, the industry has time to add 61,000 new tank cars to its fleet using the old and flimsy specifications. Not satisfied, shipping and oil companies are urging the DOT to extend the phase-in for another year. The cars have a useful life of many years, so it is critical that the DOT enact a rule that requires a quick phase-in.
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Matt Shudtz | December 23, 2014
We are closing out the “Path to Progress” series for this year with a potential bright spot. In its Fall 2014 Regulatory Agenda, the Obama Administration set a target date of March 2015 for finalizing new rules designed to prevent and minimize the consequences of derailments in trains carrying crude oil and other highly hazardous […]
Erin Kesler | December 19, 2014
Today, the EPA announced national standards governing coal waste from coal-fired power plants, also known as coal ash. The rule does not treat coal ash as a hazardous material, but as household garbage. CPR President and University of Maryland law professor Rena Steinzor reacted to the classification: It’s bitterly disappointing that the electric utility industry, which earns profits hand over fist, has succeeded […]
Anne Havemann | December 18, 2014
The main tool available to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit the amount of pollution discharged into the nation’s waterways is a system of permits issued to polluters that restricts how much they may discharge. This permitting scheme, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), requires permittees to monitor their operations and report back […]
Rena Steinzor | December 17, 2014
CPR President Rena Steinzor issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement that a grand jury had indicted owners and managers of Freedom Industries in connection with the massive leak of 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (MHCM) that fouled the Elk River and triggered a drinking water ban for 300,000 residents earlier this year: Booth Goodwin continues to […]
Matt Shudtz | December 17, 2014
Today, Nebraska Appleseed, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and several allied organizations sent a letter to OSHA requesting a response to their petition for a rulemaking on work speed in poultry and meatpacking plants. The groups originally submitted the petition to OSHA over a year ago, and it’s been radio silence ever since. Meanwhile, tens […]
Matt Shudtz | December 16, 2014
When 29 miners died at Upper Big Branch or 11 workers died on the Deepwater Horizon, when 64 people died from tainted steroids, or when hundreds got Salmonella poisoning from peanut butter, did you ask yourself, ‘Why not send the people responsible to jail?’ You’re not the only one. In her new book, Why Not […]
Rena Steinzor | December 15, 2014
We’ll soon learn the results of White House deliberations over EPA’s long-delayed coal ash rule, one of the Essential 13 regulatory initiatives we’ve called upon President Barack Obama to complete before he leaves office. Under the terms of a consent decree, EPA is required to issue its new rule by Friday, December 19. As glad […]
Anne Havemann | December 12, 2014
Under an Obama Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency will strictly monitor and regulate pollution from large industrial animal farms, with fines for those who violate tough air and water quality standards. —Sen. Barack Obama, 2008 The animal farms to which then-candidate Obama was referring are known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and they house […]
Erin Kesler | December 10, 2014
Contact: Erin Kesler Email: ekesler@progressivereform.org Telephone: (202) 747-0698 X4 What: CPR and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law will host a luncheon and Q&A session with MD Attorney General-elect Brian Frosh on the state of environmental enforcement […]