From: The New York Times
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JAD MOUAWAD
CASSELTON, N.D. — Kerry’s Kitchen is where Casselton residents gather
for gossip and comfort food, especially the caramel rolls baked fresh
every morning. But a fiery rail accident last month only a half mile
down the tracks, which prompted residents to evacuate the town, has
shattered this calm, along with people’s confidence in the crude-oil
convoys that rumble past Kerry’s seven times a day.
What was first
seen as a stopgap measure in the absence of pipelines has become a
fixture in the nation’s energy landscape — about 200 “virtual pipelines”
that snake in endless processions across the horizon daily. It can take
more than five minutes for a single oil train, made up of about 100
tank cars, to pass by Kerry’s, giving this bedroom community 20 miles
west of Fargo a front-row seat to the growing practice of using trains
to carry oil.
“I feel a little on edge — actually very edgy —
every time one of those trains passes,” said Kerry Radermacher, who owns
the coffee shop. “Most people think we should slow the production, and
the trains, down.” MORE
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