WV Statehouse Beat: Reaction to oil train explosion
Statehouse Beat: Reaction to oil train explosion
From an Article by Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette, February 21, 2015 http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150221/ARTICLE/150229877/1419#sthash.tXUogNwy.dpuf
• • • Also, since railroads are primarily regulated at the federal level, WV legislators may feel there is little they can do to regulate the transport of hazardous materials through the state.
However, as one caller noted, if claims are true that Bakken Shale oil is more volatile because producers opt not to bear the additional cost to stabilize it by removing and storing ethane, propane and other explosive gases in the oil, then states (including West Virginia) should have the right to refuse to allow its transport within their borders. “We do need to pass something that says no oil can come through West Virginia unless it’s stabilized,” the caller said. “We can’t have North Dakota bombing the rest of the country.”
• • • Timing was everything. A few minutes earlier, and the train would have been smack in the middle of downtown Montgomery, between the business district and WVU Tech. A hour or so earlier, and it would have been in densely populated residential neighborhoods in St. Albans or Kanawha City, or paralleling busy MacCorkle Avenue in Charleston. A half-hour or so later, and it would have deep into practically inaccessible parts of the New River Gorge.
According to rail fans and public officials, the frequency of oil trains through southern West Virginia is approaching daily. (The day after the derailment, a second CSX oil train en route from North Dakota to Yorktown, Virginia, was rerouted onto Norfolk Southern tracks with the CSX mainline closed, taking on a route deeper into Southern West Virginia, going through Williamson, among other towns.)
• • • Meanwhile, I think everyone would have preferred that different circumstances for the return home of newly appointed Federal Railroad Administration acting administrator Sarah Feinberg. Feinberg, daughter of Charleston lawyer and former legislator and ethics commissioner Lee Feinberg and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Stanley, was appointed to the new post in mid-January, having served as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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