Press Release from the offices of U.S. Representative Mike Thompson
Rep. Mike Thompson statement on DOT’s newly announced crude by rail regulations
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) today issued the following statement on the Department of Transportation’s new proposed crude by rail regulations:
“These new regulations are a step in the right direction. They address concerns laid out in the letter I sent Secretary Foxx earlier this month, and will help make sure crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region is shipped in a safer manner. However, there is more that should be done. Public safety is priority number one, and that’s why we need to make sure our first responders have all the information they need to quickly and effectively address emergency situations.”
Many trains transporting crude oil from the Bakken Shale formation of North Dakota run through Thompson’s congressional district. The crude oil from this region is regarded as highly flammable.
Earlier this month, Thompson and House colleagues from Northern California sent a letter to DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx expressing strong concern over the increased shipments of crude oil by rail in their districts, and calling for action to increase safety.
The letter asked that the DOT phase out old rail cars for newer, safer retrofitted cars. The new DOT regulations seek to phase out older tank cars and implement tighter speed limits while enhancing safety standards for new and existing tank cars.
Additionally, in June Thompson passed legislation through the House that enhances rail and refinery security by requiring the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis (DHS I&A) to conduct an intelligence assessment of the security of domestic oil refineries and related rail infrastructure, and to make any recommendations it deems appropriate to protect surrounding communities or the infrastructure itself from potential harm.
Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and chairs the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.
Repost from KTVU Channel 2, Oakland, CA Andrés Soto from Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community is interviewed in this KTVU TV report. “….the grass roots group, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, is not buying it: ‘There have been numerous…incidents with these rail cars. Even the improved rail cars, most recently at Lynchburg, Virginia,’ says Soto.”
Stopping deadly oil train fires: New rules planned
The Associated Press, Jul. 23, 2014
FILE – This Nov. 6, 2013, file photo shows a BNSF Railway train hauling crude oil near Wolf Point, Mont. Thousands of older rail tank cars that carry crude oil would be phased out within two years under regulations proposed in response to a series of fiery train crashes over the past year. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the government’s testing of crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana shows the oil is on the high end of a range of volatility compared with other crude oils, meaning it’s more likely to ignite if spilled. Matthew Brown, File / AP Photo
WASHINGTON — Responding to a series of fiery train crashes, the government proposed rules Wednesday that would phase out tens of thousands of older tank cars that carry increasing quantities of crude oil and other highly flammable liquids through America’s towns and cities.
But many details were put off until later as regulators struggle to balance safety against the economic benefits of a fracking boom that has sharply increased U.S. oil production. Among the issues: What type of tank cars will replace those being phased out, how fast will they be allowed to travel and what kind of braking systems will they need?
Accident investigators have complained for decades that older tank cars, known as DOT-111s, are too easily punctured or ruptured, spilling their contents when derailed. Since 2008, there have been 10 significant derailments in the U.S. and Canada in which crude oil has spilled from ruptured tank cars, often igniting and resulting in huge fireballs. The worst was a runaway oil train that exploded in the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic a year ago, killing 47 people.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said he said he expects his department to complete final regulations before the end of the year. First, the public and affected industries will have an opportunity to comment on the proposal.
“We are at the dawn of a promising time for energy production in this country,” Foxx said. “This is a positive development for our economy and for energy independence, but the responsibilities attached to this production are very serious.”
In a report released along with the rules, the Department of Transportation concluded that oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, where fracking methods have created an oil boom, is more volatile than is typical for light, sweet crudes.
The oil industry immediately challenged that conclusion. “The best science and data do not support recent speculation that crude oil from the Bakken presents greater than normal transportation risks,” said American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard. “DOT needs to get this right and make sure that its regulations are grounded in facts and sound science, not speculation.”
Rail shipments of crude have skyrocketed from a few thousand carloads a decade ago to 434,000 carloads last year. The Bakken now produces over 1 million barrels per day, and production is increasing.
The phase-in period for replacing or retrofitting older tank cars that transport the most volatile types of liquids is shorter than the Canadian government’s three-year phased plan. Congress, fearing another Lac-Megantic, has been pressuring regulators to put new safety rules in place as quickly as possible.
The proposal also includes ethanol, which is transported in the same kind of tank cars. From 2006 to 2012, there were seven train derailments in which tank cars carrying ethanol ruptured. Several crashes caused spectacular fires that emergency responders were powerless to put out.
The proposed regulations apply only to trains of 20 or more cars. Crude oil trains from the Bakken are typically 100 cars or more.
The department is weighing three options for replacements. One would be to make cars known as “1232s” the new standard for transporting hazardous liquids. Those cars are a stronger design voluntarily agreed to by the railroad, oil and ethanol industries in 2011. But those cars, which have been in use for several years, have also ruptured in several accidents.
The oil and ethanol industries have been urging White House and transportation officials to retain the 1232 design for new cars. The industries have billions of dollars invested in tens of thousands of tank cars that officials say were purchased with the expectation they would last for decades.
Another option is a design proposed by Association of American Railroads that has a thicker shell, an outer layer to protect from heat exposure, a “jacket” on top of that, and a better venting valve, among other changes. A third design proposed by the department is nearly identical to the one proposed by railroads, but it also has stronger fittings on the top of the car to prevent spillage during a rollover accident at a speed of 9 mph.
Regulators also are weighing whether to limit crude and ethanol trains to a maximum of 40 mph throughout the country, or just in “high-threat” urban areas or areas with populations greater than 100,000 people. A high-threat urban area is usually one or more cities surrounded by a 10-mile buffer zone.
Railroads had already voluntarily agreed to reduce oil train speeds to 40 mph in urban areas beginning July 1. Tank cars — including the newer ones built to a tougher safety standard — have ruptured in several accidents at speeds below 30 mph. Regulators said they’re considering lowering the speed limit to 30 mph for trains that aren’t equipped with advanced braking systems.
The freight railroad industry had met privately with department and White House officials to lobby for keeping the speed limit at 40 mph in urban areas rather than lowering it. Railroad officials say a 30 mph limit would tie up traffic across the country because other freight wouldn’t be able to get past slower oil and ethanol trains.
The department said it is considering three types of braking systems for oil and ethanol trains, but a final decision will depend on what type of tank car design is eventually adopted.
Whatever option regulators settle on, the proposal calls for newly manufactured cars to meet that standard beginning Oct. 1, 2015.
The proposal continues a requirement that railroads transporting at least 1 million gallons of Bakken crude oil notify emergency response commissions ahead of time in states they pass through. Communities from upstate New York to the coast of Washington have complained they’re in the dark about when trains pass through and how much oil and ethanol they’re transporting.
By Kathryn A. Wolfe | 7/23/14
Anthony Foxx’s announcement follows a year-long spree of oil train crashes. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
The Obama administration on Wednesday announced its long-awaited proposal to improve the safety of oil trains, a step meant to address a series of fiery derailments that have raised fears about the dark side of the North American energy boom.
The proposed rules include mandates for phasing out older, less-sturdy rail tank cars during the next two to five years, tightened speed limits, improved brakes and steps to address concerns that crude oil produced in North Dakota’s Bakken region is unusually volatile or flammable. The rules also include provisions that would affect the shipment of ethanol, another flammable liquid frequently transported by rail.
“We need a new world order on how this stuff moves,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters in making the announcement.
“More crude oil is being shipped by rail than ever before,” Foxx said. “If America is going to be a world leader in producing energy, our job at this department is to ensure that we’re also a world leader in safely transporting it.”
The details of the White House-vetted proposal had been the subject of fierce lobbying by the oil industry, which maintains that Bakken crude doesn’t pose unusual dangers, and the railroads, which have long called for tougher tank-car standards but objected to calls for reduced speed limits. The rules would offer both industries incentives to go along — for instance, oil trains meeting the toughened standards for crashworthiness and brakes could travel as fast as 50 mph in all areas, while those that don’t could be limited to 30 mph or 40 mph.
“The fact that the proposed rule incorporates several of the voluntary operating practices we have already implemented demonstrates the railroad industry’s ongoing commitment to rail safety,” Ed Hamberger, CEO of the Association of American Railroads, said in a statement Wednesday. “We look forward to providing data-driven analyses of the impacts various provisions of the proposal will have on both freight customers and passenger railroads that ship millions of tons of goods and serve millions of commuters and travelers across the nationwide rail network every day.”
The American Petroleum Institute initially said it would review the proposal, but it later blasted out a statement rejecting “speculation by the Department of Transportation” about the safety of transporting Bakken crude.
“Multiple studies have shown that Bakken crude is similar to other crudes,” CEO Jack Gerard said. “DOT needs to get this right and make sure that its regulations are grounded in facts and sound science, not speculation.”
The DOT proposal drew initial praise from lawmakers, along with some calls to go further.
Wednesday’s rollout followed months of interim rules and voluntary agreements with the railroad and oil industries. It also came after a year-long spree of oil train crashes in communities from Quebec and North Dakota to western Pennsylvania, rural Alabama and Lynchburg, Virginia — including one that killed 47 people in the Canadian town of Lac-Mégantic last July.
Even without any fatalities so far in the U.S., oil train accidents in 2014 have already shattered records for property damage, based on POLITICO’s review of data from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. As of late May — a month after the Lynchburg derailment — the damage toll exceeded $10 million through mid-May, nearly triple the damage for all of 2013. The number of incidents at that point in the year — 70 — was also on pace to set a record.
Oil trains have also inspired local opposition in communities from Albany, New York, to Washington state and the San Francisco Bay area, where residents expressed alarm at finding that they had become key way stations in a network of virtual pipelines that carry oil from production hot spots like North Dakota and western Canada.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged DOT to see that the rules are “finalized, implemented and enforced as soon as possible.”
“These desperately needed safety regulations will phase out the aged and explosion-prone … tanker cars that are hauling endless streams of highly flammable crude oil through communities across the country and New York,” Schumer said in a statement Wednesday.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said the proposal “appears to be comprehensive,” adding that “we will continue to review these proposed standards to ensure they are workable and will keep our communities safe.”
But Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing DOT, said in a statement that “there is still more work to be done, by both regulators and industry.”
“I’m pleased that the proposed regulations address issues I outlined in the 2015 transportation spending bill, like enhanced rail tank car standards and improved classification of flammable liquids, that are much-needed steps to improve the safety of our rail system,” Murray said.
