Oregon Approves Subsidy For Oil Transport, Not Coal
By Tony Schick, August 22, 2014
The Oregon Transportation Commission voted Friday to deny funding for controversial coal exports but approved subsidies that will allow more oil trains to travel along the Columbia River.
The Oregon Transportation Commission Friday voted to deny funding for controversial coal exports but approved subsidies that will allow more oil trains to travel along the Columbia River. Credit McD22 / Flickr
The subsidies were part of a $42 million package of transportation grants using money from the state’s lottery. Only one project was denied: $2 million for the Port of St. Helens to expand a dock for exporting coal.
The coal would have come by train from Wyoming to eastern Oregon, and from there it would have been barged down the Columbia. That project was denied a crucial permit this week, but the transportation commission did approve $5 million for projects that benefit oil by rail.
Regna Merritt of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility said she hoped concerns about oil train explosions would have swayed the commission.
“The health and safety issues were taken quite seriously by dozens of elected officials, and we wish that their concerns had been taken more seriously by the commission,” Merritt said.
One grant gives $3 million for improvements on a rail line through Rainier, making it safer and allowing for more oil trains. An additional $2 million will help expand a dock where the oil from North Dakota is transferred onto ships bound for West Coast refineries.
The port said the expansions have long-term benefits beyond shipping fossil fuels.
Repost from KFOX TV, El Paso TX [Editor: Apologies for commercial content on the video. – RS]
Crews work non-stop to repair Lower Valley train derailment
By Stacey Welsh, August 22 2014
EL PASO, Texas — Union Pacific Railroad said crews will be working non-stop Friday to repair a Lower Valley train derailment.
As KFOX14 reported, the derailment happened at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday near the Carolina Bridge.
While Union Pacific said some of the cars were carrying oil, there were no spills in the area.
A Union Pacific train also derailed last October, damaging a pillar underneath the Cotton Street overpass on Interstate 10.
No injuries were reported in either derailment.
“I think they need to work on the railroad tracks and maybe service them more often,” Lower Valley resident Fred Grajeda said.
Union Pacific said the community would be notified immediately if a derailment posed any kind of danger.
“We work very closely with the local authorities and emergency responders in the area. If something were to happen, we would be in immediate contact with them and they would go into their immediate emergency procedures,” Union Pacific spokesperson Jeff DeGraff said.
DeGraff said it will take some time to determine a cause of the latest train derailment. The derailment happened on Union Pacific’s property.
“The most recent edition of Inspire magazine, March 2014, the online, English-language propaganda publication of [Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula], presents a full-page collage depicting varied images…in order to construct an explosive device,” reads Carbaugh’s affidavit.
“Among these images are a derailed passenger train and a partly covered note paper listing cities in the [U.S.] as well as the terms ‘Dakota’ and ‘Train crude oil.’”
Carbaugh also cited Osama bin Laden, the late Al-Qaeda international ring-leader, in his affidavit.
“Among the materials seized in the May 1, 2011, raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, were notes indicating interest in ‘tipping’ or ‘toppling’ trains — that is causing their derailment,” Carbaugh wrote.
Osama Bin Laden Compound Diagram; Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Apperson says both lawsuits were redundant because “we reiterated [to both companies] that we would not release the documents under state open records law until the court challenge is resolved.”
MDE filed a response arguing such in July 25 legal motions issued to CSX and Norfolk Southern.
Big Rail has used a similar approach in New Jersey, another state that has not yet publicly-disclosed oil-by-rail route information.
Lee Moore, a New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety spokesman, explained why to The Record.
“Releasing all of the records, which include the rail lines on which Bakken crude oil is being transported, would pose a homeland security risk,” said Moore.
“Clocks and Windows”
William Larkin Jr., a Republican member of the New York Senate, believes the argument put forward in both Maryland and New Jersey is flawed on its face.
Photo Credit: Office of NY Sen. William J. Larkin, Jr. (R)
“I feel that both the U.S. Department of Transportation and a number of critics seemed to have missed the point, at least the larger point,” Larkin Jr. told the Poughkeepsie Journal on July 20. “[People] already know which rail lines oil companies are utilizing. Clocks and windows provide this information.”
Despite holes in its narrative about national security risks associated with disclosure of oil-by-rail routes, one measure some companies have taken is to create citizen volunteer security groups.
Norfolk Southern has a website called “Protect the Line,” in which they ask citizens to “Join the Force.” And BNSF has “Citizens for Rail Security,” which declares, “Communities play a key role in ensuring America’s rail network remains safe from terrorism and criminal activity.”
Photo Credit: “Citizens for Rail Security” Website Screenshot
The contradiction is readily apparent: communities can volunteer to keep the railroads safe, but they are not allowed to get information from the railroads about what they are keeping their communities safe from in the first place.
TSA: Asleep at the Wheel
The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) oversees and implements rail safety as it pertains to preventing terrorist threats and attacks.
However, records obtained via a recent Freedom of Information request by EnergyWire reveal TSA is asleep at the wheel in this sphere. Worse, it has been for years.
“[A] Freedom of Information Act request from EnergyWire revealed that the agency never followed through with regulations despite an August 2008 deadline,” explains the story. “That means TSA neither keeps railroads’ security plans on file nor reviews them in any standardized fashion.”
It all comes down to priorities. According to EnergyWire’s investigation, a major funding gap exists between security for surface transportation (like rail) and aviation security.
“TSA’s budget for fiscal 2012 set aside $5.25 billion for aviation security, while devoting $135 million to surface transportation security across all modes,” wrote EnergyWire.
When looked at on the whole, a sober reality arises.
That is, while Big Rail trumpets terrorism threat risks in the legal arena to skirt transparency, the industry has concurrently done little to halt the very terrorism threats it claims a desire to stop.
Repost from Capital Playbook, Albany, NY [Editor: Significant quote: “The county has placed Mintz Levin on retainer…. The firm will help with a potential legal battle with Global Partners, which has threatened to sue after the county placed a moratorium on expanding crude-handling facilities at the Port of Albany.” (emphasis added) – RS]
Albany County enlists top legal firm for oil train fight
By Scott Waldman | Aug. 22, 2014
First responders are familiarized with tank cars on the CSX Safety Train next to the Hudson River in the Port of Albany. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
ALBANY—Albany County has hired a high-powered Boston environmental law firm to help with its battle against a Fortune 500 company that’s bringing in millions of gallons of crude oil every day.
The county has placed Mintz Levin on retainer, county attorney Tom Marcelle said. The firm will help with a potential legal battle with Global Partners, which has threatened to sue after the county placed a moratorium on expanding crude-handling facilities at the Port of Albany. Marcelle said Albany County has subpeona power and Mintz Levin could be used to enforce the county’s right to question top Global officials if they withhold information the county is seeking.
“The county executive wanted to ensure the people of Albany County had the best to represent their health and safety,” he said.
The county will probably spend up to $100,000 with the firm, Marcelle said.
The firm, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, can also help the county submit comments to the federal Department of Transportation over its proposed new regulations for oil trains. Those federal regulations call for a phasing out of rail cars that transport a certain type of crude. Those cars are more likely to rupture and leak if they derail.
County officials are not happy with the federal proposal because it would still allow those older cars to transport the type of heavy crude Global Partners wants to bring to Albany. That crude from the oil sands of western Canada, also known as tar sands, is nearly impossible to clean up from waterways like the Hudson River because it sinks to the bottom.
The Boston law firm specializes in environmental law and employees about 500 attorneys. It has offices in London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and elsewhere. Attorneys at Mintz Levin helped draft the state’s Brownfield pollution mitigation legislation and has defended enforcement actions in federal and state court, according to its website.
Global, which is based in Waltham, Massachusetts and is a Fortune 500 company, threatened legal action against the county shortly after the moratorium was issued, but has yet to file suit.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy has taken a more aggressive approach to oil train enforcement than city and state officials and has also proposed a law that would fine oil train operators who fail to quickly report spills. McCoy has appointed a health and safety panel that is examining Global’s crude-handling facilities.
Global wants to build a series of boilers at the port that would allow it to bring in heavy crude oil, like from the oil sands of western Canada.
Albany has become one of the nation’s largest hubs from crude oil from the Bakken formation of North Dakota. The proposed boiler facility would effectively turn New York into a major oil-by-rail pipeline for another type of crude and has generated strong opposition.
_0.png?resize=474%2C271 "First responders are familiarized with tank cars on the CSX Safety Train next to the Hudson River in the Port of Albany.")