The union and lawyers representing two railway employees accused in the Lac-Megantic disaster are urging the Crown to drop the charges in light of recent findings by the Transportation Safety Board. Engineer Tom Harding, railway traffic controller Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre, the manager of train operations (and not a member of the union), each face […]
Insurance may not be enough to cover potential disasters
U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) regulators are concerned most freight railroad insurance policies are barely sufficient to cover even average oil train accidents, Politico reports. In an analysis published in early August, DOT reported most large railroads are insured at about $25 million for accidents, with others insuring up to $50 million for certain hazardous cargo. […]
Comment: Pick your choice for crude transport – pipeline, train, truck or ship
Crude oil is moving around the world, around North America, around pristine wilderness, around our cities and towns. It’s going to keep moving, so what is the safest way to move it? The short answer is: truck worse than train worse than pipeline worse than boat (Oilprice.com). But that’s only for human death and property […]
U.S. vs Alberta
With the United States hitting highs of oil and natural gas production not seen for years, producers in Alberta are feeling the pinch. Their share of the market is slipping not just south of the border but in Canada as well. One example is Nova Chemicals. The Calgary based company, which is owned by the […]
Comment: Fox Guarding Henhouse
How did it get missed for the last ten years?” That was the question Deborah Hersman, chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), posed to a panel of industry representatives back in April about how the rail industry had missed the fact that Bakken oil is more explosive than traditional crude oil. “How do we […]
Californians wonder how safe shipping oil by rail is?
How safe is shipping oil by rail? That’s a question being asked in California. It’s because Canada is going to be stepping up its shipments of oil by rail. Some of those trains will be heading south of the border into North Dakota and on to California refineries. One politician is calling for a study […]