Category Archives: Bakken Crude

Bakken Crude, California Regulation, Crude By Rail, Emergency Readiness & Response

Letter to the California Energy Commission: a stronger approach to rail safety

[Editor: The Benicia Independent joined the NRDC, the City of Berkeley, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community and many other organizations with this letter to the California Energy Commission building on recommendations of the State of California Interagency Rail Safety Working Group, and asking for a more aggressive approach to rail safety in California.  Below is the lead paragraph – click here for the full 8-page letter in PDF format.  – RS]

July 10, 2014

Via Email to: docket@energy.ca.gov
California Energy Commission
Dockets Office, MS-4
1516 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814-5512

Re: Docket No. 14-IEP-1F; Additional Recommendations for Oil By Rail Safety in California

Dear Commissioners Weisenmiller, Scott, Hochschild, McAllister, and Douglas:

On behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the City of Berkeley and the undersigned groups, representing over 500,000 members, activists, and residents in California, we write to submit comments on the policy recommendations included in the report “Oil by Rail Safety in California” by the State of California Interagency Rail Safety Working Group (“the report”). The report was released on June 10, 2014, and includes background on the rise of crude-by-rail transport in California and an overview of the unique risks that crude-by-rail transport poses to California, along with recommendations for actions the state should take to address those risks. We commend the state for taking this first step towards addressing this urgent issue, and particularly are impressed with recommendations to increase support to local emergency responders and extend the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) fee to apply to rail shipments of crude. There are a number of areas, however, where we are concerned that the Working Group’s recommendations are not aggressive enough to address the full extent of the serious safety, public health, and environmental risks of crude-by-rail.  [ MORE ]

 

Bakken Crude, Blast zone, Crude By Rail, donner, DOT-111, Hazmat notification, Massive increase in crude-by-rail, Rail routing, Take Action

Crude By Rail protest at rail station in Davis, CA

Repost from Fox40 TV Sacramento / Stockton / Modesto
[Editor:  Thank you, Davis!  Thank you, Assemblyman Roger Dickinson!  Thank you Fox40!  – RS]

Crude Oil by Rail Opponents Stage Protests

July 9, 2014, by Lonnie Wong

SACRAMENTO – Activists concerned about the danger of crude oil train shipments through populated areas took part in a national day of action Wednesday, including events in Sacramento and Davis.

Laurie Litman heads up 350 Sacramento, a group concerned about global warming. She notes that shipments of crude oil in California have increased 1,300 percent over the past four years.

Litman circulated a map at a rally outside a federal building in Sacramento showing neighborhoods and schools that would be affected by a fiery oil spill like the one that killed 47 people in Quebec, Canada a year ago.

“These are not fires that can be put out. They need to burn out, so if that happens when a train comes through the middle of Sacramento, we are in trouble” Litman said.

Sacramento Assembly Member Roger Dickinson addressed the gathering, telling them that emergency agency need to know what volatile oil shipments are being transported and when. He has authored a bill requiring rail companies to provide that information and have access to real time communications gear to get information to local officials.

Several rail spills occurred in areas where emergency responders had no little information of what was spilled.

“To assure that we get the information that we need, and the information that we need in a timely way,” said Dickinson.

Many at the rally were advocating a reduction in the use of crude oil as a long term solution to the threat of oil derailments.

“It’s not if, it’s when because it has happened before,” David Link, of the Sacramento Electrical Vehicle Association, said Wednesday.

Activists in Davis are particularly concerned about a plan to run 100 oil tank cars a day through Downtown Davis to a Valero refinery in Benecia. If approved, the trains would go from Roseville thorough Sacramento past Davis.

They handed out leaflets and circulated petitions at the Davis Rail Station.

Bakken Crude, Benicia Planning Commission, Crude By Rail, DEIR, Tar sands crude, Valero Benicia Refinery

Vallejo Times-Herald: Why the rush on crude?

Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald, Letters

Why the rush on crude?

By Kathy Kerridge, Vallejo Times-Herald, 07/08/2014

The Benicia Planning commission will take public comments tonight at City Hall on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for Valero’s Crude by Rail project. Written comments are due by Aug. 1. This project would bring 100 rail cars a day over the Donner Pass or through the Feather River Canyon, over rivers, through Truckee, Roseville, Sacramento, Davis, Dixon, Fairfield, the Suisun Marsh and into Benicia.

These trains could be carrying the same Bakken Crude that exploded in Canada, killing 47 people and Canadian Tar Sands, which have proved impossible to clean up when it has spilled in waterways. Some have claimed this is safe. Everyone should be aware that the National Transportation Safety Board in January said that trains carrying crude oil should “where technically feasible require rerouting to avoid transportation of such hazardous materials through populated and other sensitive areas.” At this point in time it is feasible to keep these dangerous materials from going through populated areas by not approving the project. Otherwise it will not be feasible.

The new railcars that Valero says it will use are the same ones that ruptured and spilled April 30, 2014 in Lynchburg, Virginia, threatening Richmond’s water supply. The Department of Transportation is in the process of crafting new rules for rail cars carrying crude, but there is no time line for when they will be issued and it will be some time before any new cars are available. There have been two train derailments in Benicia’s Industrial Park in recent months.

Why the rush? Is Valero running out of crude oil? No. The reason Valero wants to bring in this dangerous crude, in rail cars that split and rupture in a derailment, is that this crude oil is on sale right now. The oil isn’t going anywhere. It isn’t safe to transport through populated areas and all of the communities that this crude goes through will be at risk.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Volatile gases

BizJournal: Why does North Dakota oil explode so much?

Repost from The Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal 

Why does North Dakota oil explode so much?

By Mark Reilly, Managing Editor- Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal – July 8, 2014

Oil-industry shortcuts made in the early days of the North Dakota oil boom have left the state awash with crude oil that’s so unstable many pipeline companies won’t ship it. Cue the exploding trains.

The Wall Street Journal reports that only one company in North Dakota has installed stabilizer equipment to remove explosive gases from the crude oil before transport. Federal regulations don’t call for such measures, but pipeline companies do, and that’s one reason why North Dakota oil is so often shipped by rail — and why oil trains have exploded so ferociously when they derail.

RELATED: Oil train tally: More than 40 per week into Minnesota

Now, faced with the prospect of an explosion in a populated area, regulators are reconsidering those rules. Industry groups have played down the danger, saying that train cars can handle the issue.

The Journal contrasts North Dakota with Texas, another region that’s seeing a boom in fracking-produced oil that’s possibly even more combustible. But in Texas, companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars to add stabilizing equipment and now ship it via pipeline with no trouble.