YES! We’ve seen a massive increase in oil train explosions.
77%
NO! That would lead to another argument in favor of pipelines.
23%
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Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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I have heard the argument that pipelines are safer than trains or trucks in transporting oil. We should not be transporting oil across the US at all. If we put our money and energy behind sustainable, safe energy there would be no need for pipelines or oil trains.
The RR commission and OSHA have been sitting on their hands for years and done nothing about enforcing upgrades to make RR freight transport safer. From reading the news articles, it appears these RR derailments are due to human error rather than accidental spontaneous combustion.
As for trains being safer than pipelines, I think the jury is out on that. Having lived in TX where there are huge pipe highways running throughout the state, I have seen houses blown up because of a ruptured pipeline mostly due to corrosion. We have seen that with PG&E's pipelines in CA.
The XL pipeline will be transporting highly corrosive tarsands bitumen which is essentially liquid tar to TX for refinement. The pipeline has a 1% undetected flow rate meaning 9000 barrels of oil can be leaking from their pipeline and no one would know about it until either the oil bubbles to the surface or it contaminates the groundwater (perhaps both events) making residents and livestock sick or even killing them before someone finally investigates.