Watching trainloads of crude oil zipping past homes and businesses in the region, safety questions about potential derailments are inevitable.
It’s a big issue now, with the United States moving toward energy independence. Last year, railroads moved 493,126 tank cars of crude oil, compared to 9,500 in 2008, before hydraulic fracking became commonplace in the Bakken region of North Dakota, Montana and Canada.
New regulations unveiled this month by the U.S. and Canada are in response to a series of fiery train wrecks, including four so far this year.
The rules require new tank cars carrying the most volatile liquids to have an outer shell, a thermal lining, improved top and bottom fittings and thicker steel walls aimed at reducing the odds of the rail car’s walls rupturing.
Thousands of older tank cars will have to be phased out within three years, and some newer cars built to a voluntary standard established in 2011 will have to be phased out within five years.
There are other requirements as well, including new braking requirements, but they all amount to expensive attempts to make transporting crude oil and other highly flammable liquids by rail safer.
The extent of the danger in Northwest Indiana is difficult to determine. Other states have released reports submitted by railroads operating in those states, but Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security has cited an exception in the state’s access to public records laws that allow secrecy for any record that “would have a reasonable likelihood of threatening public safety by exposing a vulnerability to a terrorist attack.”
Oil trains need to be made safer, no question about it. These new federal rules should help, even though we acknowledge they’re expensive.
But really, the safest alternative is to build pipelines, including the Keystone XL, to transport oil underground where accidents are less likely to occur.
The need for oil trains would be lessened, though not eliminated, if more pipelines were used to transport oil.
Last week, U.S. Senators Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., reintroduced their North American Energy Infrastructure Act, which would help prevent lengthy delays to important energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The years-long consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline proves we need to streamline the process for approval of energy infrastructure projects, so that they are not subject to endless, unnecessary delays,” Donnelly said. “Investing in our energy economy is an essential part our country’s economic successes and is critical to our national security. I thank Sen. Hoeven for continuing to work with me on this issue important to our energy security.”
It’s not just about economic development, but also public safety.
We’ve said before the Keystone XL pipeline should be built. The risks associated with oil trains, while being reduced by the new federal requirements, are still another argument for building this pipeline.