Repost from The DOT-111 Reader [Editor: Many thanks to the folks at DOT-111.org for locating this EPA website, specific to the Alma, Wisconsin derailment – excellent details, photos and a GoogleEarth link. FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: the EPA links to other On-Scene Coordinator updates here: http://www.epaosc.org/. – RS]
EPA Website for Alma Spill
November 9, 2015 | EPA | When hazmat spills occur, the EPA assigns an on-scene coordinator. The OSC provides updates to the spill on their website. For those wishing to follow EPA reports on the Alma spill, [you can follow along here.]
Here’s a sample of the photos available:
IMG_0458.JPG (11/8/2015) View of ethanol tankers in water
Repost from RT News [Editor: See also WKOW ABC27, updates and photos. Also WKOW ABC27, 100-car unit train, same tracks used by Amtrak. Also Associated Press, for latest updates. Also WISN TV: “Watertown residents allowed to return home after derailment. Train was carrying Bakken crude oil.” – RS]
Evacuation, leak reported as 25-car train with crude oil derails in Watertown, Wisconsin
9 Nov, 2015 00:29
A Canadian Pacific train loaded with oil tank cars. Ernest Scheyder
A potentially large oil leak is reported at the scene of a Canadian Pacific train crash in Watertown, Wisconsin. At least 10 carriages derailed at the spot where track repairs had recently been made. The situation alarmed people living in the “blast zone.”
Canadian Pacific confirmed to local media that the train had derailed. A spokesperson for the railroad, Andy Cummings, told 27 News that at least 10 cars carrying crude had derailed around 2 pm local time, adding that some of the oil was leaking.
UPDATE: 35 homes evacuated in Watertown as crews investigate train derailment #news3 http://bit.ly/1GRCazh
“Canadian Pacific is taking this incident extremely seriously,” Cummings said. “We have officials enroute to respond to the incident scene to coordinate with local officials.”
At least thirty-five Watertown residents have been evacuated from the area, Watertown officials said.
Another view from News Chopper 12 – #Watertown train derailment.
Nearby Dodge County and Jefferson County emergency crews are helping out the Watertown Police Department at the scene.
Canadian Pacific officials were conducting repairs in the same area the derailment occurred just several days ago, according to activist Sarah Zarling from the Citizens Acting for Rail Safety (CARS) group in Watertown.
“Just had the alarming recall that this derailment happened right where Canadian Pacific crews had been working just days ago. These were pictures I took of them working in the No Trespassing Canadian Pacific property area,” the activist posted on the group’s page.
“I live less than a block from the tracks in a blast zone, and let me tell you it’s not too comforting knowing you’re living in a blast zone. You never know when or where a derailment will happen. I don’t want to be one of those 47 people who blow up and die,” Zarling told FOX6 News.
There are currently no fires or injuries being reported. Canadian Pacific said it has dispatched teams to the site.
This is the second freight train derailment in two days in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin.
Less than 24 hours ago, a freight train derailed near Alma, Wisconsin, spilling thousands of gallons of ethanol.
Repost from KMSP Fox9, Minneapolis-St. Paul MN [Update: WISC-TV, Madison, WI, 11/08/15, 08:24:13 AM CST. Latest updates – Associated Press, as of Nov. 9, 2015 4:54 PM EST. – RS]
Tanker train derails near Alma, Wis. along Mississippi River
ALMA, Wis. (KMSP) – A large Burlington Northern tanker train derailed along the Mississippi River approximately two miles north of Alma, Wis. on Saturday morning, prompting several road closures and a temporary voluntary evacuation of the area.
The train was traveling southbound along the Mississippi River when it derailed around 8:50 a.m., according to a division of the Wisconsin Emergency Management team. At least 25 cars went off the tracks, including empty auto racks and tanker cars of denatured alcohol, commonly known as ethanol. Aerial footage of the site shows two of the 25 derailed cars in the water.
Five of the cars released have released ethanol into the river, BNSF Railway said in a statement. No fire, smoke or injuries occurred.
Parts of Highway 37 and 35 were temporarily closed due to the incident, but all roads are now back open. The residents in the affected area who voluntarily evacuated have returned to their homes.
Emergency crews are working with BNSF and the La Crosse hazmat regional team to evaluate the derailment. The Federal Railroad Administration is also investigating the incident.
Severson said there is no danger to the public.
“Everybody responded very quickly and it’s good as it can be. It’s gone very well,” Severson said.
At about 8:45 CST this morning a train carrying freight of all kinds derailed approximately two miles north of Alma, WI. Twenty five cars derailed, including empty auto racks and tanker cars of denatured alcohol, more commonly known as ethanol. There were no fires or injuries associated with the incident. A voluntary evacuation has been lifted and there is no threat to the public. Five of the tanker cars of ethanol have had releases in the Mississippi River. BNSF personnel are working to address the leaks and contain the product. BNSF will work with the EPA and state agencies on the best plan for mitigation and remediation efforts.
We regret any inconvenience the voluntary evacuation may have caused residents. For those who incurred expenses while temporarily evacuated earlier today, BNSF’s Claims Department can be reached at 763-782-3354.
Repost from Salon.com [Editor: Significant quote: “To Bill Gates’ credit he got the equation partly right, when he said that ‘the solution is investment’ in clean energy – a statement he backed up by committing to invest $2 billion in clean energy. However…” – RS]
Bill Gates gives Exxon cover: The Gates Foundation is deadly wrong on climate change, fossil fuels
When Exxon shares your view, time to reconsider. Bill Gates has divestment, clean energy and fossil fuels wrong
By Alex Lenferna, Nov 7, 2015 08:59 AM PST
(Credit: Reuters/Pearl Gabel)
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s wealthiest charitable foundation, has been under an unprecedented amount of scrutiny regarding their investments in the fossil fuel industry lately.
Activists (and kayaktivists alike) were quick to point out the flaws in Gates’ argument and to highlight that by not divesting Gates is supporting the very industries that are lobbying against climate progress and whose business models are deeply out of line with averting the climate crisis. A disconcerting example of this came when Exxon Mobil endorsed Bill Gates’ view. They did so, furthermore, as part of an article attempting to deny their culpability for intentionally misleading the public about the reality of human-caused climate change, and by extension the risks of its product. Like Big Tobacco before them, Exxon are facing calls for federal investigation under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by no less than Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and more. In order to try and vindicate themselves and justify their deeply problematic position on climate change, Exxon turned to Gates’ views as support.
Gates’ problematic statements remain the only response a representative of the foundation has given, and for a foundation dedicated to a better world, sharing worldviews on climate change with a corporation implicated in one of the more egregious corporate scandals arguably in human history seems like a poor position to be in.
Thus, while the Gates Foundation has, of course, done much good work, such a response to divestment and framing of the climate change issue should lead us to question the intentions and motivations behind Bill Gates, the Foundation and its leaders.
For instance, Warren Buffett, who owns much fossil fuel infrastructure, is the largest donor to the Gates Foundation, with donations of over $31 billion. What role does this play in the Foundation’s unwillingness to divest? Also, does Bill Gates’ chairman role on TerraPower, a nuclear power company, make him more willing to knock down clean energy in order to position TerraPower and their nuclear reactors favorably in the market? After all, the Atlantic interview in which Gates rejected divestment read almost like an advert for TerraPower.
Divest-Invest: Two Sides of the Same Coin
To Bill Gates’ credit he got the equation partly right, when he said that “the solution is investment” in clean energy – a statement he backed up by committing to invest $2 billion in clean energy. However, clean energy investments are only part of the equation; if we are to solve climate change, we also need to wind down investments in the fossil fuel industry and related infrastructure, while breaking the fossil fuel industry’s corrupting stranglehold on politics so that we can unlock the sorts of policies, societal changes and investments needed to tackle the climate crisis.
While Gates claims that divestment is a “false solution” that “won’t emit less carbon” and that there is no “direct path between divesting and solving climate change,” the 2° Investing Initiative (and the International Energy Agency) point out that “divesting from fossil fuels is an integral piece to aligning the financial sector with a 2°C climate scenario,” with reductions in fossil fuel investments of $4.9 trillion and additional divestment away from fossil-fueled power transmission and distribution of $1.2 trillion needed by 2035 if we are to achieve the internationally agreed upon 2°C target.
It seems that even Peabody, the largest private-sector coal company in the world, has a more enlightened view on divestment than Bill Gates. Peabody have recognized that by shifting perceptions around fossil fuels and spurring on legislation, divestment efforts “could significantly affect demand for [their] products and securities.” Peabody’s conclusion aligns closely with that of the researchers at Oxford University’s Stranded Assets Program, whose influential report on divestment illustrates that the political and social power that divestment builds through stigmatizing the fossil fuel industry could also “indirectly influence all investors… to go underweight on fossil fuel stocks and debt in their portfolios.”
Contradicting Bill Gates’ claim that divestment “won’t emit less carbon,” the “radical” environmentalists over at HSBC bank recently issued a research report showing that divestment could lead to less fossil fuel production and less carbon emissions. According to HSBC, divestment could help “extend the carbon budget” by creating “less demand for shares and bonds, [which] ultimately increases the cost of capital to companies and limits the ability to finance expensive projects, which is particularly damaging in a sector where projects are inherently long term.”
The “Miracle” of Clean Energy
Gates also provided a misleading assessment of the economics of the clean energy transition (seemingly out of the pages of a fossil fuel industry misinformation handbook or his favored climate contrarian adviser Bjorn Lomborg). Gates claimed that the only way current technology could reduce global emissions is at “beyond astronomical cost,” such that a “miracle” on the level of the invention of the automobile was necessary to avoid a climate catastrophe.
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