Exclusive: Permit Shows Bakken Shale Oil in Casselton Train Explosion Contained High Levels of Volatile Chemicals

From:  DeSmogBlog

by Steve Horn

On January 2, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a major safety alert, declaring oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the Bakken Shale may be more chemically explosive than the agency or industry previously admitted publicly.

This alert came three days after the massive Casselton, ND explosion of a freight rail train owned by Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and was the first time the U.S. Department of Transportation agency ever made such a statement about Bakken crude. In July 2013, another freight train carrying Bakken crude exploded in Lac-Mégantic, vaporizing and killing 47 people.

Yet, an exclusive DeSmogBlog investigation reveals the company receiving that oil downstream from BNSF — Marquis Missouri Terminal LLC, incorporated in April 2012 by Marquis Energy — already admitted as much in a September 2012 permit application to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

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Why Bakken Oil Explodes

From:  Sightline Daily 

Eric de Place and John Abbotts

The perils of a particular petroleum, explained. 

 

In early January, a federal agency alert made clear what many already knew: that crude oil from the Bakken formation is more prone to explosion than other types of crude oil. The warning came after tank cars carrying Bakken oil exploded in three separate railroad accidents in Alabama, North Dakota, and Quebec. It’s a worrisome finding for the hundreds of communities that host loaded oil trains every week.
Let’s take a closer look at some particular issues with Bakken oil.

What’s different about Bakken oil?

Bakken oil is a type of “light sweet crude,” a relatively high quality oil that is easier to refine into commercial products, but also easier to ignite. A few decades ago, light-sweet crude was the dominant oil type in the US. Light oil is by no means new to the industry, but the recent boom in oil extraction in the Bakken and similar deposits elsewhere does represent a new and unexpected development for the industry.
What’s more, the large-scale rail transport of crude oil is a very recent phenomenon. From 2009 to 2012, for example, oil-by-rail shipments grew from fewer than 11,000 railcars nationally to well over 230,000. That astronomical growth has continued in 2013 and early 2014. MORE

Did TransCanada Try to Discredit a Pipeline Safety Whistleblower?

From:  Inside Climate News 

By Mike De Souza

Email suggests TransCanada sought to sap the credibility of a former employee

Evan Vokes, a fomer TransCanada engineer, has publicly accused the Canadian pipeline operator of trying to avoid costly repairs and inspections. Now a newly released internal email suggests that TransCanada tried to undermine Vokes' credibility as it sought approval for its controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Image: pipe section from the Keystone XL southern leg/Credit: Public Citizen

A newly released internal e-mail from TransCanada Corp. is raising fresh questions about whether its managers attempted to undermine the credibility of a former employee who questioned the company's commitment to safety, describing him as "disgruntled."

The email is the latest in a collection of thousands of pages of records released by the former employee, engineer Evan Vokes, who has been at the center of a dispute over the safety of TransCanada's operations in Canada. The emails also touch on TransCanada's record in the United States, where it hopes to build the multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline project. Another TransCanada pipeline, which runs from Alberta, Canada to Cushing, Okla. and is known simply as the Keystone, has been plagued by at least 35 leaks or other incidents in the U.S. and Canada since it opened in June 2010.

The records Vokes released document internal safety concerns raised within the Alberta-based energy company, along with the responses from management. Vokes worked at TransCanada for five years, specializing in "non-destructive" examination, which uses tools or visual inspections of the infrastructure without damaging the pipeline.  MORE

Breaking: CSX Railroad "Bomb Train" Carrying Crude Oil Explodes in Lynchburg, Virginia

From:  DeSmogBlog

by Steve Horn

A freight train owned by CSX Corporation has erupted in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia, which sent “flames stories high” into the air, creating a large black cloud.

ABC's WSET has reported four of its cars were “labeled crude oil” and one witness interviewed on WSET who is an employee at Lynchburg's Market at Main restaurant, Randy Taylor, told show hosts it “sounded like a jet” when it exploded. 

“The train that derailed and caught fire in Lynchburg, Virginia, belongs to CSX Corp. and was carrying crude oil,” explained a Reuters breaking story. “The accident occurred near the waterfront and some crude oil is leaking into the James River, which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.”

Around 300 people were evacuated following the accident because of the black, billowing smoke. Though the incident happened in the heart of downtown, no injuries or deaths have been reported.

This story will be updated as further information becomes available.

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Kindergarten show canceled so kids can keep studying to become ‘college and career ready.’ Really.

From:  Washington Post 

BY VALERIE STRAUSS

An annual year-end kindergarten show has been canceled at a New York school because the kids have to keep working so they will be “college and career” ready. Really.

That’s what it says in a letter (see below) sent to parents by Ellen Best-Laimit, the interim principal of Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, N.Y., and four kindergarten teachers. The play was to be staged over two days, May 14 and 15, according to the school’s calendar.

One mother who received the letter, Ninette Gonzalez Solis, wrote on Facebook that parents learned recently the play was being canceled and started calling the principal, leading the school officials to send out the new missive. Solis wrote that she was very upset about the cancellation.

All but one of the people who signed the letter were unavailable for comment. One asked me to call back but then didn’t answer the phone. District Superintendent Peter Scordo declined to discuss it. Michael Conte, a spokesman for Scordo, said in an e-mail on Saturday:

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How LNG Fracking Could Damage the World’s Greenest City

From:  EcoWatch

by Brandon Baker

If there’s a global list of the greenest cities, there’s a good chance Vancouver is included.

Green jobs, eco-friendly modes of transport and urban food security landed the British Columbian (B.C.) city at the top of the United Nations Warsaw 19th Conference of the Parties‘ list of cities taking action against climate change. Vancouver was also named the 2013 Earth Hour capital and was hailed as the world’s greenest city by Siemens, GlobalPost and more. That reputation could get a lot dirtier if the B.C. government follows through on Premier Christy Clark’s aggressive plan to make the province a world leader in fracking for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The province’s ministry of energy has issued an LNG strategy, and The Canadian Press reports that Clark is “poised to develop a trillion-dollar LNG industry.”

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Major fire, explosion after train carrying crude oil derails in Lynchburg, Virginia

From:  NY Daily News 

WSET

Downtown Lynchburg, Va., is being evacuated after a train detrailed and crashed Wednesday afternoon.

A train carrying crude oil derailed and crashed in downtown Lynchburg, Va. Wednesday, evacuating the immediate downtown area as it was seen billowing with extreme smoke and fire.

The city says no injuries have been reported from the explosive crash around 2 p.m. EST near The Depot Grille which reportedly dumped crude oil into the James River.

Lynchburg police and fire personnel were actively at the scene while advising residents to stay out of the downtown area. City officials also say that the city's drinking water has not been affected by the spill.

The city reports that 12 to 14 tanker cars were carrying crude oil when the CSX train crashed. Of those cars, three or four tanker cars breached.  MORE