What happened in Lac Megantic will happen in the U.S. this year

[cali]

and if not this year, than the year after. There likely won't be as much death and destruction, but it will happen. And what happened with the Enbridge pipeline rupture oil spill in Michigan will happen again this year or the year after.

We are now moving vast amounts of crude oil, from TX, from the Bakken oil fields in ND, from Alaska, from Canada. Tar Sands oil, light crude, heavy crude. We are moving it in DOT111 tanker cars which we've known aren't safe for over 20 years. We are moving it on dilapidated infrastructure through densely populated towns and cities.

The amount of oil transported by rail has grown insanely over the past few years:

<snip>

In 2009, North Dakota was shipping about 20,000 barrels of oil a day along its rail lines. Four years later, the total had increased by more than 3,000 percent, according to Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

<snip>

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-10/north-dakota-oil-transport-risk-revealed-in-quebec-blast.html

And pipeline accidents spill three times the amount as rail accidents, though rail accidents happen more frequently.

We're going to keep doing this. We're going to keep transporting this stuff, so the least we can do is improve the infrastructure and the regulations and oversight. And all I can think of doing is calling and writing my reps and asking them to introduce appropriate legislation and support any legislation that arises.

[Enrique]

1. we already did, in a way

BP Gulf disaster and Massey Mines disaster, both disasters in the energy industry of historic proportions, just in the last few years. But you're right, more are on the way.

[cali]

2. more are on the way in large part because we are producing a lot more oil but

we're relying on a transport system/infrastructure that seriously lags production, though the bottom line is that there is no safe way to transport the stuff. Still, we could make it safer.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cali.