Riverkeeper Comments on U.S. Department of Transportation’s Proposed Rulemaking on Transport of Flammable Fuel by Rail

July 23, 2014

Riverkeeper Team
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tina Posterli, Riverkeeper, 516-526-9371, tposterli@riverkeeper.org
Continues call for immediate emergency action to ban the use of DOT-111 train cars to carry crude oil
Statement by Riverkeeper:
“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s proposed rulemaking is a start in the direction of taking long-needed action to make communities across New York State and the country more protected from the extreme risks of crude oil transport. But DOT has once again failed to take immediate steps to reduce those risks, and instead has initiated what is likely to be an extended process of review and revision of the proposed rule-making and potentially industry challenge while its moderate proposed safety measures will continue to be on hold.”
Riverkeeper will be reviewing and commenting on the proposed regulations with the goal of urging DOT to enact the most thorough and precautionary standards needed to protect communities and the environment from the transport of toxic crude oil. In the meantime, we reiterate our call for the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to issue an emergency order to ban the use of DOT-111 train cars to carry crude oil. Every day these cars remain in operation transporting crude oil of any kind increases the potential for a disaster to occur, and not pulling them off of the rails immediately is not protecting the public’s best interest. The chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said her agency ‘was concerned that major loss of life, property damage and environmental consequences can occur’ as a result of the 400-per-cent increase in oil shipments by rail since 2005, and cautioned that ‘our safety regulations need to catch up with this new reality.’ The proposed regulations do nothing to move us toward that goal in the short term and as far as we can tell, from a quick review, will not meet this criterion when ultimately finalized.
We will continue to urge that much-needed regulations be implemented in an expedited manner and look forward to working with federal government and industry on the final rulemaking.”
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