The American Petroleum Institute knows the danger posed by oil trains transporting volatile North Dakota crude in old, unsafe tankers that puncture easily. The API is demanding federal regulators take strong actions to strengthen regulation of oil trains carrying North Dakota crude.
While the API is demanding strong and swift regulatory action, Governor Corbett sleeps. The Governor trots out a spokesperson to say that no action is being taken to protect the safety of Pennsylvanians living and working by oil trains rumbling through their communities.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2014/01/22/Calls-raised-for-controls-on-trains-bearing-crude/stories/201401220026.
The Governor's response in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to the oil train derailment in Philadelphia on Monday that follows 4 oil train explosions in America and Canada is disappointing and worrying.
Pennsylvania is the destination of 20% of all North Dakota crude. It all arrives in the Commonwealth by rail. And so, there are a lot of oil trains rolling through Pennsylvania, and a great deal of the volatile, explosive North Dakota oil is being transported in tankers that are old and puncture easily.
Those facts worry--a great deal--the American Petroleum Institute and me. Yet, Governor Corbett does nothing. That is the height of irresponsibility!
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