West Virginia train derailment causes massive fire, evacuations
By Ryan Parker, Feb 16, 2015, 1:31pm
A train derailment Monday afternoon in West Virginia caused multiple explosions and a massive fire, officials said.
At least one home near the derailment in Fayette County caught fire and has been destroyed, according to Lawrence Messina, the state’s public safety spokesman.
The derailment happened about 1:20 p.m. Eastern time, Messina said. Three hours later, the fire was still burning, he said.
The CSX train was hauling crude oil, which is leaking from at least one of the cars, Messina said. There are no reported injuries, he said.
“Our concern is oil is leaking into the Kanawha River,” he said. Two water intakes downstream from the treatment plant have been shut down, he said.
CSX acknowledged that the company was aware of the situation. “We are working with first responders on the scene to ensure the safety of the community,” it said on Twitter.
Some of the tanker cars exploded, and oil on a portion of the river is on fire, according to the office of Kanawha County Emergency Management & Floodplain Management, which was assisting in the response.
Kanawha County is downriver from Fayette County.
Adena Village, near the derailment, has been evacuated, and authorities were beginning to evacuate homes across the river from the fire about 4:30 p.m., Messina said. At least 100 people have been evacuated, he said.
Fayette County is about 60 miles southeast of Charleston.
Pictures on social media, which a spokesman for the Montgomery Fire Department confirmed were of the scene, showed fire engulfing the train.
Heavy snow is falling in the area, but Messina said it is unclear if that will help extinguish the fire.
Senators push for safety: Schumer, Blumenthal unveil their plans to improve rail crossings
By David McCumber, Hearst News Service, February 15, 2015
This February 4, 2015 members of the NTSB investigation team view a damaged rail car involved in Metro North train accident in Valhalla, New York. Safety on one of America’s busiest commuter rail services was under the spotlight Wednesday after a packed passenger train slammed into a jeep, killing six people north of Manhattan. It was the worst of three deadly crashes in less than two years on the Metro North line that carries around 280,000 passengers a day. The driver of a jeep, which became stranded on the tracks, and five rail passengers were killed in the February 3 rush-hour accident, which ripped up tracks and ignited a major explosion. Fifteen other people were injured, seven of them seriously, in what should have been a monotonous but totally safe journey home to the suburbs after a busy working day in America’s largest city. AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / NTSB
Washington – Reacting to a safety threat both regional and national, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Richard Blumenthal announced new federal legislation Sunday to improve safety at rail crossings like the one at which six people died in an accident on Metro-North’s Harlem line in Valhalla, Westchester County, earlier this month.
“The pain is still fresh … and Sen. Blumenthal and I feel compelled to act,” Schumer said as the two Democratic senators announced the bill at a Grand Central Station news conference. “We must improve safety at rail crossings for the sake of our drivers and our rail passengers.”
In 2013, more than 200 people died nationwide in 2,096 rail-crossing accidents, and the rate has held steady at about 2,000 accidents a year for several years. Over the decade from 2005 to 2014, there were 341 accidents in New York state, causing 59 deaths and 96 injuries, according to Federal Department of Transportation records.
The legislation would provide about $800 million over four years to local governments, states and the federal railroad and highway administrations to improve crossing safety, by focusing on engineering fixes, public education and safety enforcement.
Among the bill’s provisions is $100 million a year for four years to revive a tool provided to the Federal Railroad Administration by Congress in 2008 — but never implemented. It is a grant program designed to provide funding to states for specific engineering and technological fixes, public education and targeted law enforcement.
“It’s very unfortunate that Congress has neglected these programs,” Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said in an interview later Sunday. “Programs that the federal government had instituted to remedy these gaps … have gone unfunded and ignored.”
Blumenthal said that of the 212,000 rail crossings nationwide, nearly half have no active warnings — no lights, sounds or barricades, just a stop sign. “What you have are death traps for the unwary and unwarned,” he said. “We’re using 19th-century technology in the 21st century.”
He said the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Highway Administration have failed to focus on the problem. “They have not sounded the alarm,” he said. “They have been as silent about this danger as the unprotected crossings themselves.”
The bill would also:
Reauthorize yet another defunct FRA program to help states and communities relocate rail lines to fix glaring safety problems, providing $25 million per year for four years;
Increase funding for the Federal Highway Administration’s Railway-Highway Crossing Program, which provides for “separation or protection of grades at crossings, the reconstruction of existing railroad grade crossing structures, and the relocation of highways to eliminate grade crossings.” The $50 million per year for four years provided by the bill is in addition to the fund’s current budget of $220 million per year.
Increase FRA’s manpower to focus on grade-crossing issues;
Require the FRA to analyze new technology the public can use to report grade-crossing dangers;
Strengthen the federal government’s collaboration with Operation Lifesaver, a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to rail-safety education.
Blumenthal has been one of the Senate’s most strident advocates of increased rail safety, particularly since a spate of injuries and fatalities in accidents on Metro-North in 2013. He has been sharply critical of enforcement lapses at FRA, which regulates passenger and freight rail safety.
Schumer and Blumenthal are optimistic that the bill will find bipartisan support. “Many of these crossings are in states with Republican senators,” Blumenthal said. “And this bill can more than pay for itself if it reduces accidents. The 2,000 accidents each year — nearly one every three hours — cost $2.2 billion in property damage alone.”
“Too many innocent victims, drivers, train passengers and railroad employees have died,” Blumenthal said Sunday. He said these tragedies “are preventable … but without the decisive steps we urge, rail grade crossings will continue to be accidents waiting to happen.”
Repost from YouTube [Editor: See also Clément’s and Sophie’s website, The Takeoff. – RS]
The Condor and The Eagle
A documentary film directed by Clément Guerra
In April 2014, Clément and Sophie Guerra began their epic journey here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Interviewing many of us who are working to stop Crude By Rail in our refinery towns, they have now released “The Condor And The Eagle – Mini Series – Episode 1- The Bay Area.”
Our project started 10 months ago in the Bay Area, CA. There is currently this feeding frenzy in 5 communities of the Bay of proposed projects to retool the refineries to receive, transport and refine dirtier bottom of the barrel oil: Bakken and Tar Sands. The communities are now coming together, ready to fight back and make sure that California won’t take part of this devastating mega projects that are Alberta tar sands. People are rising, more and more people come together. Nothing is done yet, it will take a lot of work to give the movement the kind of form that will make a difference. It’s about re-creating the foundations of an inclusive dynamic, focused on how to bring onboard those who aren’t yet.
Featuring:
– Pennie Opal Plant
– Andres Soto
– Marilyn Bardet
– Kalli Graham
– Ed Ruszel
– Bill Nichols
– Greg Karras
– Nancy Rieser
Norway’s divestment is great news. But this is the last moment to be complacent.
By Tim Ratcliffe February 6, 2015
Today’s news that the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth (oil) Fund has divested from a total of 22 companies, potentially totaling billions of dollars in assets, is a huge win for the rapidly growing divestment campaign and should be celebrated. In fact, in terms of amount of money it is likely the biggest divestment decision to date, so reason to be optimistic that this rapidly growing campaign is having a serious impact.
But once the celebrating is over, there’s no time to sit back. Now is the time to push. In the words of Naomi Klein, acclaimed author and journalist, regarding the implications of the falling oil price, “We’re in a much better situation to win but we need to understand that this is a window. This is the last moment to be complacent.”
This has been reiterated in recent publications by both the Economist and Deutsche Bank. The reality is that most of the carbon in our already proven reserves must stay in the ground and that legislation to ensure that this is the case is just around the corner. Now is the time to demand big changes.
The Norwegian oil fund still invests in well over 100 fossil fuel companies with assets totalling around $40bn, and total reserves representing well over 500gt CO2 if burnt. Enough to take the world soaring past a 2 degree target and any chance of stopping dangerous changes to the climate system.
“I see this as a “counter-move” from Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the group that oversees investments by the fund, to the growing pressure from divestment, where they try to demonstrate to politicians that they can do OK without stricter political mandates,” suggests Truls Gulowsen, campaigner with Greenpeace Norway. “It is still up to Parliament to instruct the Fund to complete full fossil fuel divestment, as the Fund still has billions in coal, oil and tar sands investments. This decision is scheduled for May this year, so maximum pressure on Norway is needed.”
Global Divestment Day next week, 13 and 14 February comes at the perfect time to increase the pressure on institutions such as the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund to commit to full divest from fossil fuels.
You must be logged in to post a comment.