A recent article (“More oil train crashes predicted,” Feb. 23) by The Associated Press says it all: “The federal government predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in a densely populated part of the U.S.”
Crude oil transport by rail must be stopped in New York state, immediately. In light of the report by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the recent crude oil train derailments and explosions in Illinois and West Virginia, state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens and Gov. Andrew Cuomo can no longer hide behind the mantra that crude oil transport by rail is the federal government’s problem and the state has no authority in the matter.
The governor and commissioner are legally required to protect the health, safety, welfare and property of citizens. U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., as well as Larry Mann, principal author of the Federal Railroad Safety Act, have publicly stated crude oil by rail is dangerous and potentially deadly. A summary abatement order by Martens to ban all rail transport of crude oil until it is proven that such transport is safe is well within Martens’ power.
The people cannot wait for another catastrophe before our leaders take action.
Dominick Calsolaro Albany Former Albany Common Council member
Repost from The Times Union, Albany NY [Excellent month-by-month review of CBR developments in New York’s capital region, and an excellent group of 14 photos. – RS]
Albany’s Top 10 stories: Region a hub in oil train surge
Converging lines drove growth in shipment
By Brian Nearing, December 29, 2014
View of the courtyard between the apartment buildings and the rail line that carries oil tankers to the Port of Albany Wednesday, July 16, 2014, at Ezra Prentice Homes in Albany, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)
More oil trains kept a-rollin’ last year in Capital Region from the booming Bakken fields of North Dakota, where massive hydrofracking has helped drop national gasoline prices below $3 a gallon.
It was only two days into 2014 in the aftermath of a massive oil train derailment and fire in North Dakota when federal regulators warned that Bakken crude was more likely to catch fire than regular crude. And at year’s end, critics were warning that federal plans to phase out less-sturdy versions of the most common rail tankers during the next two years were too slow.
In between, massive trains pulling dozens of all-black tanker cars — carrying millions of gallons of crude and ominously called bomb trains by opponents — kept coming.
Because of its geographic location, with rail lines converging from all four directions and its access to the Hudson River, Albany has become a major oil shipping hub, which drew little public attention when the oil boom began taking shape some five years ago.
Some oil is unloaded at the port for shipment down the Hudson in barges or tankers, while other oil continues by rail either south along the Hudson River to coastal refineries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania or north along Lake Champlain to Canada.
And there are many more trains than just a couple years ago. For the first 10 months of 2014, more than 672,000 oil-filled tanker cars moved by rail in the U.S., an increase of more than 13 percent from the previous period of 2013, according to federal statistics. That was more than twice as many as the 300,000 rail oil tankers that moved for the same period in 2011.
But for part of the oil train story in Albany, 2014 will end the way it began, with the state Department of Environmental Conservation still weighing plans by an oil terminal operator at the port, Global Partners, to build a facility that heats crude oil to make it easier to pump in cold weather.
Bakken crude doesn’t have to be heated in the cold, leading many to conclude Global wants to begin accepting trains carrying Canadian tar sands oil, a thicker crude that must be heated to be pumped in the cold. Global has never said either way. DEC extended the comment period on the project eight times amid growing community opposition.
Global and another terminal operator, Houston-based Buckeye Partners, have DEC permission to ship 2.8 billion gallons of oil a year that is arriving by rail. By the end of January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had ordered a state review of safety and spill control plans while also pressing the Obama administration to act faster to toughen rules on the burgeoning energy network.
The governor did not wait for the report to act. By February, he was touting the first rail-safety inspections at the Port of Albany and elsewhere by state and federal regulators. By year’s end, eight such inspection “blitzes” had been done involving nearly 7,400 rail cars, including more than 5,300 oil tankers, and nearly 2,700 miles of track. A total of 840 defects have been uncovered.
In March, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy slapped a county moratorium on Global’s crude heating project. By July, as many as 42 oil trains each week — each holding more than 100 million gallons of Bakken crude — were coming into Albany from North Dakota, according to figures released by the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
This summer, two major rail companies — CSX and Canadian Pacific — revealed information about their shipments under an emergency federal order intended to help inform local emergency workers of potential risks. CSX transports oil through 17 counties on a line that runs upstate from Lake Erie and eastward roughly along the Thruway corridor, while CP runs oil through five counties in the Capital Region and the North Country on the way from Canada.
The region can expect to see trains for a long time. By October, a Canadian Pacific official predicted increased transport of tar sands crude oil from Alberta in coming years would account for about 60 percent of the railroad’s oil revenue. That same month, the DEC rejected oil train opponents’ claims that the state had the power to immediately ban the most common type of tanker cars — called DOT-111s — from entering the port loaded with flammable oil.
Also in October, Global quietly withdrew plans before the DEC for a new oil terminal facility on the Hudson River in New Windsor, Orange County, so that oil could be moved from massive crude oil tanker trains onto vessels to continue downriver to coastal refineries. The company also announced it had voluntarily stopped using the oldest, least sturdy models of DOT-111s.
By December, officials in North Dakota announced new safety rules on Bakken crude oil shipments aimed at reducing its potential explosiveness, but the limits would not affect about 80 percent of oil arriving daily in Albany, leading oil train opponents to criticize the rules as almost meaningless.
And it looks like the surge of oil trains will continue to grow. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, two refineries in Linden, N.J., and Philadelphia are adding crude-by-rail terminals to handle up to 8.8 million gallons a day of incoming shipments.
For oil trains from North Dakota and Canada to reach these refineries, the trip would have to pass through Albany.
Concerns Raised About Oil Trains In The Adirondacks
By Mitch Wertlieb & Melody Bodette, August 28, 2014
Government offices, track-side warehouses and Monitor Bay Park campground surround the tracks on the south end of Crown Point, New York. The Adirondack Council has raised concerns about oil trains in the Adirondacks. | Adirondack Council
Ever since the train disaster last summer at Lac Megantic, Quebec, people in our region have been taking more notice of the oil trains traversing our rails.
Concerns have been raised on the New York side of Lake Champlain, where the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks run close to the water.
“In some places they are literally right next to the water,” said Mollie Matteson, a senior scientist for the Center for Biological Diversity. “They run through towns like Plattsburgh, Essex, and Westport, and then eventually they end up down in Albany. From there they go on down south either to refineries or to other places by ship.”
The shipments are relatively new, having begun in the past two years. Matteson said the trains were brought to the attention of more people by the disaster in Lac Megantic. The unit trains, as they are sometimes called, are trains entirely of tank cars of crude oil.
“What’s unique is this cargo and this new phenomenon of carrying crude oil by rail. And it’s something that’s been happening all around the country, but only just in the last couple years we’ve seen tremendous growth around the country,” Matteson said. “What’s happening here locally is that we have this new cargo, that has proven to be highly dangerous explosive and obviously if there’s a derailment and a spill it could severely damage our aquatic ecosystems and drinking water for thousands and thousands of people.”
A demonstration was held in Plattsburgh in July and some protestors expressed concern about whether the local emergency services are prepared to deal with a potential derailment and disaster.
Matteson said a starting point would be to make sure the transportation is safer. “These tank cars have been known for 20 years to be very puncture prone in any kind of derailment, even a low speed derailment. We need to get the oil off the rails. It’s simply not a sensible way to be transporting a hazardous material through thousands of small towns and cities around the country, exposing millions of people to this risk.”
The bigger question, Matteson said is should we be extracting more fossil fuels from the ground?
“Really what we need to be looking at is transitioning to a different energy regime.”
There are proposed rules to require upgrades to safer tank cars, but they would be phased in over a number of years and Matteson said, the Center for Biological Diversity believes the trains need to be off the rails immediately until there are safer cars in place, and there needs to be adequate oil spill response plans.
This oil is coming from the North Dakota Bakken oil fields to the terminal in Albany, a company called Global Partners. They are looking to expand their operations in the port. The Center for Biological Diversity has been involved in lawsuit against the company and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation over the proposed expansion plans.
Global Partners did not respond to a request for comment.
A community forum on the oil trains will be held on Thursday, August 28, from 7-9 p.m. at the Plattsburgh City Hall.
