U.S. crude oil production has grown significantly in the U.S. since 2009. In 2014, it increased by 1.2 million barrels a day to 8.7 million barrels a day, the largest volume increase since record keeping began in 1900, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Over that same period we’ve also seen an increase in spills and fires in the U.S. that resulted from derailments of oil tanker cars.
The growth in our nation’s energy independence requires that we strengthen protections for our safety, environment and transportation systems.
Currently that effort is being addressed on three fronts:
The state Utilities and Transportation Commission is seeking to fine Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad as much as $700,000 for 14 incidents in which BNSF failed to timely notify the state of spills and leaks, some of them of crude oil from tanker cars.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., introduced a bill last week that would immediately ban the use of older-model tank cars, referred to as DOT-111 cars.
And the Legislature continues work on two similar bills — one in the House, one in the Senate — that would add regulations and taxes to the shipment of crude oil by tanker car, marine oil tankers and pipeline.
BNSF will have the opportunity of a hearing before the UTC to explain the spills and leaks and why it didn’t notify the state sooner. Admittedly, some of the leaks were relatively minor. But the commission also should take the opportunity to get a full report from BNSF on each incident to determine if the cause of each spill or leak involving tanker cars was equipment failure or human error and the steps taken to correct the failures.
The rail industry, and the companies that ship crude oil by rail, are slowly making a transition from the DOT-111 cars to tankers that have been touted as a safer alternative, called CPC-1232 cars. As a rule, the tanker cars themselves are the property of leasing companies or the companies shipping the oil . BP last year switched to the new cars for its shipments to its refinery at Cherry Point near Ferndale. Likewise, Tesoro made the same switch to the new cars for shipments to its refinery near Anacortes. Perhaps impatient with the slow transition of its crude oil customers, BNSF has begun to made its own investment in the new rail cars, which it can lease to oil and chemical companies.
The CPC-1232s aren’t foolproof; some of the recent instances of spills and fires in the U.S. involved the new cars. But even with the investment by the oil companies and BNSF, a federal mandate to speed up the transition, and maybe find something even safer, is called for.
Meanwhile, state legislators continue work on their own bills, which differ slightly but would: require BNSF to give advance notice of daily oil train shipments; charge oil trains the per-barrel tax that marine tankers pay for oil spill preparedness, possibly raising it from 4 cents to 8 cents a barrel; increase the number of state rail inspectors; and increase the size of train crews from two to three or four.
Many of these recommendations were outlined in a report on rail safety funded by the state, recommendations it should now implement. In reconciling the two bills, legislators should lean toward safety as much as is possible as the best opportunity to prevent a rail disaster in Washington state.
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