Tag Archives: Rachel Maddow

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Fire, Tar sands crude

RACHEL MADDOW: ND oil train safeguards too little, too late

Repost from MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show
[Editor: You have to be patient at the beginning of this report – Rachel will take you through font size in the NYTimes 100 years ago for a pretty good reason.  Her sometimes roundabout and always repetitive hype proves to be well worth it.  She is one of very few who have reported on – and made understandable – the difference between oil stabilization and oil conditioning.  Hang in there….  – RS]

ND oil train safeguards too little, too late

Rachel Maddow and Wall Street Journal senior energy reporter Russell Gold discuss if new oil train safety regulations will be enough to prevent disasters like the derailment in West Virginia yesterday that caused huge explosions.

The Rachel Maddow Show, 02/17/15

California Regulation, Davis CA, Spill prevention and response, Take Action, Uprail communities, Valero Benicia Refinery

Davis and “Uprail” Communities organize to oppose Crude By Rail

Repost from Cool Davis, Davis, California

Crude-by-Rail Opportunity for Written Comments

Workshop on How to Respond to the Draft EIR
Wednesday, June 18 from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Fellowship Hall at Davis Community Church (421 D Street)
Instruction, brainstorming, and organizing our efforts
Refreshments!

The Draft EIR for the Valero rail terminal Project in Benicia (70,000 barrels of crude oil /day or one unit train of 100 cars over 1 mile) will be released for a 45-day public comment period on June 10, with a possible extension to 60 or 90 days for review.

Our city will comment and has invited surrounding jurisdictions to join them. Other organizations and concerned individuals are also invited to make written comments during the comment period. To inform yourself about the project and begin thinking how you might respond, some recommended resources are:

• https://beniciaindependent.com It posts all the official documents related to the proposed project as well as a plethora of articles.

• http://www.sightline.org is also a terrific resource for the bigger picture of crude-by-rail and also coal and natural gas export. http://www.sightline.org/research/the-northwests-pipeline-on-rails/ and http://daily.sightline.org/blog_series/the-northwests-pipeline-on-rails/ This blog series is outstanding, although it is aimed at Washington and Oregon which are besieged by trains compared to CA so far.

• Natural Resources Defense Council letter on safety (30 pages) http://yolanoclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/rail-safety-comments-final-group-letter.pdf

• Two reports by Forest Ethics,    http://yolanoclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/off-the-rails-ultimate-nw-forst-ethics-report.pdf     and http://forestethics.org//sites/forestethics.huang.radicaldesigns.org/files/ForestEthics-Refineries-Report-Sept2012.pdf

• Document by Attorney General Kamala Harris on safety and health concerns http://yolanoclimateaction.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/kamala-harris-addresses-inadequate-eir-on-wespac-in-pittsburg/#more-107

• An article on liability which is an angle that may not be addressed in the DEIR, http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/03/17/record-year-oil-train-accidents-leaves-insurers-wary
Gov. Brown added $6.7 million to the Office of Spill Prevention & Response to handle accidents.  It won’t go far in a catastrophe.

• More on risk assessment for railroads and who will be responsible for liability. http://daily.sightline.org/2014/05/19/risk-assessment-for-railroads/

• Rachel Maddow’s May 2, 2014 broadcast, “Public Safety at risk by Oil Train Shipments” at http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

Key areas for uprail responders will most likely include public safety, the hazards of spills in terms of the environment, the insistence on the Right-to-know laws, health risks, liability issues, and the true cost of oil in terms of climate change.  Benicia has to respond to all comments in their final EIR, so the more specific, thoughtful and numerous our comments, the better.  Different people can address different aspects.

Another opportunity for citizen response: The Phillips 66 Santa Maria refinery in San Luis Obispo County request for a rail spur for 5 oil trains of 88 cars per week expects to release their Draft EIR possibly in July.

Bakken Crude, CPC-1232 standard, Crude By Rail, DOT-111, Ethanol, Propane, Rail industry, Tank car design, Tank car retrofit, U.S. Department of Transportation

Rachel Maddow: Disastrous record shows tank car hazard is decades old

Repost from MSNBC – The Rachel Maddow Show
[Editor: This is an incredible 18 minute report on the decades-long history of tank car failures, alerts by the National Transportation Safety Board … and inaction by the US Department of Transportation.  Enough!  – RS]

Disastrous record shows tank car hazard

Rachel Maddow  |  05/14/14

Rachel Maddow illustrates the safety shortcomings of the rail tank cars that are used to in large number to ship highly flammable material including Bakken crude oil, pointing to accidents, explosions, and toothless warnings going back over decades.

Bakken Crude, Derailment, DOT-111, Emergency Readiness & Response, Federal Regulation (U.S.), James River, Keystone XL, Lac-Mégantic, Lynchburg Virginia, Oil Industry, President Barack Obama, Tank car retrofit, U.S. Department of Transportation

Rachel Maddow: Canada forcing new U.S. regulations; Obama must act decisively

Repost from MSNBC / The Rachel Maddow Show
[Editor: This is a lengthy video, (sorry about the commercial ad), but well worth your time.  After exploring oil pipeline spills, Maddow digs into the incredible increase in crude oil transport by rail, and the explosions and the need for quick action from the Obama administration.  Near the end, she interviews Wall Street Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, author of The Boom.    – RS]

Public safety at risk by oil train shipments

 Rachel Maddow, 05/02/2014

Russell Gold, senior energy reporter for the Wall Street Journal, talks with Rachel Maddow about the safety shortcomings inherent in shipping oil by rail, particularly the highly flammable Bakken crude.