Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Three environmental groups due DOT over unsafe oil-by-rail car
Three environmental groups — the Sierra Club, ForestEthics and Earthjustice — are suing the Department of Transportation, alleging the agency failed to respond to their petition to ban the use of the DOT 111 rail car model to ship flammable crude oil.
The DOT-111s have been involved in a number of fiery accidents. Last July, a train carrying Bakken crude exploded in Quebec, killing 47 people in the town of Lac-Mégantic.
In July, Earthjustice asked the DOT to issue an emergency order that would prohibit the use of unsafe tanks cars to carry incendiary Bakken crude oil from North Dakota. Now the group is suing, saying transportation officials never responded to that petition.
The DOT has proposed regulations that would ultimately replace the unsafe cars. But it could take years for those rules to phase in, said Patti Goldman, an attorney at Earthjustice.
"The worst tank cars are likely to shift from the Canadian fleet to the U.S. fleet," Goldman said, "unless the secretary of transportation acts [to ban them]."
For more of the KQED Science story: blogs.kqed.org
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